Victory vs. Wheaton Academy puts Fenton in new position
Fenton will head to its holiday tournament with a winning record. That's a big deal to the Bison.
"That's very exciting," Fenton senior guard Isa Lozada said. "We haven't been in that position before, so having that record, it's really fun."
The Bison clinched that winning record with Wednesday's 48-44 victory at Wheaton Academy in a Metro Suburban Conference Red Division girls basketball game. They will start the DePaul Prep/Northside Prep Christmas Tournament on Saturday against Lincoln Park.
"Anybody that was in our shoes at the beginning of last year would have taken that right now, that's for sure," said second-year Fenton coach Dave Mello, noting that the 8-6 Bison are also above .500 in the league at 4-3 despite playing five of those conference games on the road.
The Bison won by doing things a little differently. They made just four 3-pointers in 42 attempts.
"We didn't make all our 3s today, but we won by putting up 2s," said Lozada, who scored 6 points. "We were running the court a lot. They ran with us. It was a fast pace. It ran the clock a little bit, but we were able to settle down and get our 2s up."
"I told them, 'Hey, this is how far you guys have come in a year and a half now that we can't throw it in the ocean and we're tied with a good team,'" Mello added. "I mean, to be tied at 21 and make our living off of 2s... ."
Trailing 33-32 after the third quarter, the Bison scored the first 6 points of the fourth to take the lead for good. Clinging to a 4-point margin in the final seconds, the Bison finished the game by going against their instincts. Normally, an all-out, shoot-quickly team, the Bison opted to run out the clock.
"As a team we're already fast-paced and everything, so slowing it down is kind of hard," Lozada said, "but we've been in that situation before, so we know how to handle it. We know they're going to come at us and try to foul, but we just keep calm and spread out the court."
"We don't really practice that. We practice one way," Mello added.
Wheaton Academy had a chance to win, but Fenton also got to the free-throw line, scoring 16 points there, 10 of them in the fourth quarter.
"We keep saying, we need to play how we practice, and we practiced really hard this week for this game, and the girls did everything that we asked them to do," Wheaton Academy coach Erin Carwell said. "They executed well. They transitioned back. They defended well. We just could not hit our shots tonight."
Junior Imani Hillmer led the Warriors (4-8, 3-4) with 15 points. Sophomore Molly Venhuizen notched a double-double with 12 points and a whopping 20 rebounds.
"She has been performing well," Carwell said of Venhuizen. "I tell her that she should go in thinking every rebound is mine. And so this is probably the third game in a row that that's where she's been at, is looking to grab that ball, transition with it and that is her mentality now. She is leading our team in rebounds."