Libertyville dumps Meadows to take the crown
It's the third year of the Libertyville Girls Winter Classic. Rolling Meadows' girls basketball team won the title last year and had its sights set on a second-straight championship.
But the host Wildcats had a different idea from the outset and picked up the pace from the opening tip.
Libertyville ran away from Rolling Meadows with a 61-50 victory and won its own title for the first time Thursday afternoon in Libertyville.
"It's even better to win it against Rolling Meadows and getting here through Niles West," Libertyville coach Greg Pedersen said. "We're really proud of the tournament we've put together and the level of competition we have here. Rolling Meadows was a strong, tough, gritty team and has athletes that are so good. So, we knew that we had to come out with an intensity and pressure, especially on defense. The first three minutes dictated the pace of the game."
The Wildcats (13-4) had three players lead in scoring. Lydia Crow had 16 points, Margaret Buchert 15 and Lauren Huber 11. Between the three of them, they made eight 3-pointers.
"We knew this going into the season and felt like if a team keys on one kid, then there's another kid to step up," Pedersen added. "If you key on two kids, that would take a lot of manpower. Then, there's a third kid there that can hurt you and that's why we have a team that's performing the way it is right now. There's not one way to stop Libertyville which is a good feeling going into the game."
Libertyville opened the game with consecutive treys from Crow and Huber in the first couple of minutes before the Mustangs (14-4) got a point on the board.
The Wildcats' frantic pace pushed the lead out to 17-4 on Crow's short jumper with 2:01 left and Libertyville held an 18-8 lead after the first eight minutes.
Rolling Meadows tried to work its way back and closed to within 29-24 after Lily Greifenstein (game-high 24 points) made 2 free throws with 30.9 seconds left in the second quarter.
Buchert dropped in a clutch 3 in the final seconds bumping the lead to 32-24 going into the break.
"I do like to get the open shot at the end. If I'm not open then I look to make the pass," Buchert said. "Today, it worked out that I was open. I think it was good for our team to have the momentum and getting a bigger lead. It gave us more confidence going into halftime."
The second half, the Wildcats kept up the pace and kept their scoring going, while keeping the margin in the area of double-digits. They led 47-35 going into the final quarter.
In the final eight minutes, the Mustangs couldn't mount an attack and get closer than 9 points.
"(Libertyville) from start to finish controlled the game," Rolling Meadows coach Ryan Kirkorsky said. "In looking back at this point of the season, Libertyville is better than us. We ran every defense we had at them; we did not do a good job guarding at any of them. (Libertyville) did a great job executing really well against our man-to-man. They handled our zone after they adjusted. Even when they didn't score, offensive rebounding - they controlled the game that way too.
"We still feel pretty good where we're at," Kirkorsky added. "It could've been easy for us to go into that hole and not respond. That did show some toughness, but we have a lot to clean up going into the second half of the year."