St. Viator holds off Carmel Catholic

Trailing St. Viator by as many as 17 points early in the second half, Carmel Catholic drew to within 11 when freshman Grace Sullivan drove to the basket for a layup late in the third quarter.

Shortly after, the girls from Mundelein had a chance to get back to within single digits.

But the Lions' defense tightened and on the ensuing possession, senior Payton McDonnell did a half circle dribble from the top of the key to the basket for a layup that got the lead back to 13.

The Lions (8-2, 1-1) never looked back in a 58-43 East Suburban Catholic Conference girls basketball win in Arlington Heights Saturday night.

Back-to-back layups by sophomore Emma Morrisey to start the fourth quarter extended the lead back to 17 points.

"Payton (McDonnell) had a huge bucket there when they were trying to creep back a little," said Lions coach Jason Raymond. "It was a big shot for us.

"Payton did a great job in the second half. Her energy was incredible. She really played to the scouting report. She was all over the place, getting deflections, and on the boards. She was outstanding."

The Lions got off to an outstanding start, getting a pair of 3-pointers from freshman Joy Bergstrom (15 points) and one from classmate Nora Ahram (game-high 16 points) to grab a 9-2 lead.

"We love to come out ready right away, " said senior guard Sam DeJulio. "Our coach always talks about getting that early run and especially knowing we were playing Carmel (the Lions lost to the Corsairs to end last season) gave us an even bigger push. It was great to play them. They're good competition."

The Lions also wanted to get back on track after a 60-24 loss to Nazareth on Wednesday.

"That was a humbling experience for us," McDonnell said. "And after not beating Carmel for a few years, we wanted to come back and play our game."

Raymond said the Lions learned some tough lessons in the Wednesday loss.

"This was a bounce-back game for us," he said. "You could see it in the first few minutes of the game. The girls really came out with intensity, not only defensively, but also on the offensive end. They were really aggressive. It was great to see, especially from our younger players who were learning from Wednesday and carrying it over with a great bounce-back effort."

Senior Natalie Krause's layup with 21 seconds left in the first half capped an 8-2 run and gave Viator a 32-19 lead.

Bridget DeZellar, Aubrey Horbach, Elise Horbach and DeJulio also contributed points for Viator.

Sullivan led Carmel (5-4, 0-2) with 11 points while seniors Cailtin Teehan and Brigit Barr each added 10.

"At the beginning we started in a zone and gave up a few open looks," said Corsairs coach Ben Berg. "Credit to them. They've got a lot of good shooters. Our plan was to run them off the 3-point line so we went man-to-man. They've really got five guards on the floor so they're a tough cover."

But Berg was proud of his club.

"The last three quarters we kind of played them even up," he said. "We did a little better. We just dug ourselves too much of a hole."

'I thought Brigit (Barr) fought hard. She got on the floor for some loose balls and just did a good job. And Caitlin Teehan as well. There's a learning curve because we've got some young girls playing. We're going to learn a bit."