Fenwick's late run denies Bartlett a win
The Fenwick girls basketball team prevailed 50-47 in a game of "top this" against Bartlett to take home the consolation championship at the 32nd Annual Charger Classic Christmas Tournament on Tuesday.
Bartlett (9-6) was stellar during a 9-0 run that was ignited by Kaitlin Brohan's three-point play and included consecutive buckets from Amia Akwiwu and a fast-break layup from junior Mariah Martinez. The surge bridged the third and fourth quarters and staked the Hawks to a 9-point lead with five minutes left, the largest lead of the ballgame for either team to that point.
However, Fenwick (7-11) countered with a 13-0 run and outscored the Hawks 14-2 over the final 4:38 to pull out an improbable victory in Carpentersville.
Reckeisha "Kiki" Sheard's shooting struggles were consistent with those of her fellow Friars. Sheard was 2 of 9 from the field entering the fourth quarter after rarely capitalizing in the third period despite 5 offensive rebounds.
Sheard finally found her range in the fourth, scoring on her final 3 attempts, including a transition layup with 3:55 left that sliced Bartlett's lead to 45-42.
"In the beginning they were fouling me and stuff, but my team kept me in the game and kept me focused," said Sheard, who in the third quarter missed 3 of 4 field goals and 4 free throws. "I just kept playing, kept going after it. Nothing was stopping me."
Sheard finished with 11 points and a team-best 11 rebounds, 8 offensive, which drew a reaction from Fenwick coach Dave Power.
"I said, 'Kiki, you were stinking this gym up and now you're making it smell great.' "
Power also credited the play of junior guard Deja Cage, who sandwiched 2 key baskets around Jess Moriarty's go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:49 to play. Cage led the Friars with 12 points.
Brohan kept Bartlett within 49-47 by sinking a long jumpshot with 1:38 to play.
That was still the score with 10 seconds remaining when Bartlett passed on an open 3-point look and instead attempted a backdoor play that failed to connect.
The Hawks grabbed the offensive rebound, but a turnover landed in the hands of Fenwick's Kelly Canoy. She was fouled and split 2 free throws with .8 seconds left for the final margin. Bartlett did not have enough time to launch a desperation 3-pointer from three-quarters court.
The Hawks nearly won despite losing the rebounding battle 43-25. Fenwick finished with more turnovers (18), but Bartlett committed 5 of its 13 turnovers in the fourth quarter.
"We had several turnovers that gave them easy layups and they gained some momentum," said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna, whose team played the tournament without junior point guard Shelley Lyjak, who was excused to participate in a soccer showcase.
"We're still calling out for a player on our team to take charge on the offensive side," Sarna continued. "We got passive on the offensive side and when you get passive you're going to turn the ball over instead of being aggressive. I thought we had overcome that. We played a few games in the past few days where we were winning at the end of the game and we finished strong. We had a little setback."
Brohan led all scorers with 16 points to go with 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Teammate Kelly Harris contributed 10 points and 7 rebounds.