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Libertyville able to hold off Carmel

Taking on the role of the leader senior Lauren Huber, a Holy Cross recruit, stepped up in the final quarter with 6 of her team-high 19 points as Libertyville's girls basketball team held off visiting Carmel Catholic 53-49 in a nonconference on Thursday night in Libertyville.

Huber's control of the game and timely shots took a 1-point game out to a 7-point advantage in the final couple minutes.

"I kind of took over instinctively," said Huber, who added 9 rebounds. "Everything just kicked in and you have to lead the freshmen out there. You just have to communicate. I could have had a few more baskets. The ones that I made were good shots. We were all able to pull it together in the fourth quarter."

A close finish like this one does say something about Libertyville (5-2) at this point of the season.

"It's all kind of crazy, because we haven't had much practice." Huber said. "It was the first big stress situation, which I thought we did a great job. We just worked really well together."

Coming in, Libertyville knew that this matchup was going to be a good one.

"We knew Carmel was a talented team." Libertyville Greg Pedersen said. "They do have some really good players. We're happy with the victory. We do want the ball in (Lauren's) hands to control things in our game. You can see that when she did have the ball, that good things were happening. That's the benefit of having a veteran senior guard."

The Wildcats' Morgan Spaulding added 14 points, Emily Fisher had 9 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals, and Marianne Morrissey also had 9 points.

The Corsairs (2-2) made a late effort down to the final minute behind Jordan Wood, who scored 6 of her game-high 21 points. She added 8 rebounds. Mia Gillis added 11 points and 6 rebounds, and Grace Sullivan chipped in 8 points and 12 boards.

"Proud of the girls' effort," Carmel coach Ben Berg said. "In the first half, we played a little nervous. We gathered ourselves and got some of our footing a bit late in the first half. The girls got over a lot of things to keep it close towards the end of the game. We played a very good team down to the wire."

The Corsairs' 6-foot-1 sophomore Gillis stepped up and helped out with her effort that got Carmel close and to take a brief lead in the third quarter.

"It was her aggression going to the basket," Berg said. "She was drawing fouls and getting to the free-throw line along with rebounding, which we need to do a lot better. She did that well in the second half."

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