Szmajda's career night leads Wauconda past Marian Central

Sophomore center Kiley Szmajda scored a career-high 20 points to along with 8 rebounds and 3 blocked shots, as Wauconda's girls basketball team defeated visiting Marian Central 53-45 in a nonconference game on Monday night.

Allie Tylka added 16 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals for the Bulldogs, who won their seventh game in a row. Wauconda (16-3) led only 34-32 after three quarters, before outscoring the Hurricanes 19-13 in the fourth.

"It was a tight game through three quarters," Bulldogs coach Jaime Dennis said. "We were able to earn the victory at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter (shooting 7 of 8). I was very pleased with our execution down the stretch, not both sides of the ball. We talked about some things that we needed to change at half: keeping them off the offensive boards, patience on offense - and the girls did that. Kiley had a career high to take the pressure off Allie. My guards, (Ella) Karg and (Maddie) Carver did a nice job of distributing the ball."

Libertyville 62, Grayslake North 41: Margaret Buchert scored 12 points, Lydia Crow added 11, and the visiting Wildcats won the nonconference game.

Morgan Spaulding contributed 10 points, and Abby Parkerson had 7 points for Libertyville (14-6).

Grayslake North (8-14) received 9 points apiece from Meghan Leahy and Savannah Guenther.