Walker, St. Francis break game open
St. Francis and DeLaSalle only have four seniors between them. Three of those seniors toil for St. Francis, and two were the difference in Tuesday's Girls Catholic Athletic Conference White Division game in Wheaton.
St. Francis' Antwainette Walker had 21 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals, and Christine Fasana added 11 points and 7 steals as the Spartans overwhelmed DeLaSalle 71-49.
"Walker plays great," St. Francis coach Sandy DeCraene said. "She did a lot more passing today, which I enjoyed watching. It opens up a lot of opportunities for us to get easier shots. She's got great passing skills and she's very quick."
Walker thrived in the open court against DeLaSalle, scoring on a coast-to-coast drive to tie the score at 13-13 with 1:05 remaining in the first quarter. She then found Emily Dziengel underneath to give the hosts a 15-13 lead after eight minutes.
The coach wants us to attack, attack, attack," said Walker, an Arkansas-Little Rock recruit. "When we attack, we get fouled and go to the line for some easy points. I love the running up and down the floor. That's the way I like to play. I love it."
Fasana, meanwhile, picked off seven DeLaSalle passes leading to extra opportunities for St. Francis (9-8, 3-2), which built a 34-22 lead at halftime and blew the game open with a 23-10 advantage in the third quarter.
However, DeCraene would like to see Fasana become a little more selfish on the offensive end.
"When she's on, she's totally on," DeCraene said. "She works hard for me. But she's got to start believing in herself and have more confidence because she is a really good player. She needs to come to the table. When she does, her game is going to excel to the next level."
Fasana, who has been on varsity since the midway point of her freshman year, admitted she may be a little too pass happy.
"I do think I should take more shots, but it just happens that way sometimes," Fasana said. "By the end of the game tonight, we were sharing the ball and everyone started working together. Our defense was better and we got more steals and more deflections."
Freshman guard Katelin Chaparro added 13 points for St, Francis, including a pair of 3-pointers.
"We started off really slow," DeCraene said. "That's not how we play. When we're attacking and putting pressure on the ball, we're scoring 50 to 70 points a game. But we're giving up 28 turnovers a game. Today was only 15, which is good for us.
"If we stop those turnovers, add those few points and play defense, we can win a lot more ballgames," she added.
Five-foot-8 freshman guard TaKyia Howard led DeLaSalle (4-12, 1-3) with 22 points and 5-2 junior guard Natalia Trejo added 12.
"Our plan was to stop Walker from getting a lot of points, but we got into foul trouble early so it was hard to sustain that energy," DeLaSalle coach John Smith said. "She had a big second quarter (12 of her 21 points)."