Fenton squeaks out win vs. Thompson, Westmont
It wasn't Fenton's best night, but it was good enough.
The Bison overcame their own tardiness and a 35-point, 17-rebound, 3-block performance by Westmont sophomore Megan Thompson to collect a 69-62 nonconference victory Monday night in Bensenville.
"We've talked all season about how the little things matter in life, not just in basketball, and tonight's one is the first thing that we're going to address in (the postgame locker room)," said Fenton coach Dave Mello, adding it was the first time he's been disappointed in his team. "We gave them a time to be ready to go and they weren't ready to go, and it carried into the game."
Despite making just 11 of 69 3-point attempts, the Bison (7-6) trailed just twice in the game.
"We always have our ups and downs, but we always try to keep a positive attitude and we always try to have the energy we have," Fenton senior Alexus Arzola said. "But I think that's what kind of helped us."
The Bison needed its positive attitude in the final minutes when Westmont sophomore Aleksa Sekularac scored to cut the Fenton lead to 64-62. But that was the last time the Sentinels scored.
"I thought we had a chance there," Sentinels coach John Natanek said. "Our program, I'm not making any excuses, we have no freshman/sophomore team, so any player that was eligible to play, our 11 is the entire school's program. ...
"I'm proud of them. Our record (2-8) is OK. We've won a couple of games, but we've been competitive in almost every loss. But we're pretty much fielding a freshman/sophomore team out there."
Fenton's Ashley Milano answered the Sekularac basket with a corner 3-pointer with 1:21 to play.
"That was fun. It was exciting. It's always exciting to splash a 3-pointer," Arzola said.
Arzola added the final basket of the game to give her a game-best 14 points. Milano hit four 3-points to finish with 13 points.
Sekularac scored 12 points.
But Thompson's performance was the most notable.
"I stopped her in the (postgame handshake) line there and said, 'We played Marshall, we played Aurora Christian, she is the best player we've seen.' She is unreal," Mello said.
Thompson is averaging about 20 points and 17 rebounds a game, Natanek said.
"It impresses the (heck) out of me because they're double-teaming her all the time and she just keeps going and going," he said.