Rolling Meadows claims MSL East title outright

After one round of the Mid-Suburban League East girls basketball race, four teams were logjammed at the top with 3-2 records.

When then dust finally cleared on Saturday night at the Jean Walker Field House in Mt. Prospect, it was Rolling Meadows which emerged with the outright title.

And no one can say the Mustangs didn't earn it.

They completed a 24-hour sweep against teams they had lost to on their home floor in the first round of league play.

First, it was a 47-36 win at Buffalo Grove on Friday night. Then it was Saturday's 47-40 win at Prospect.

Senior guard Lily Greifenstein scored a game-high 19 points to lead the Mustangs to their fifth MSL East crown in eight seasons.

But this time it was all theirs.

RM (20-6, 8-2) finished one game ahead of defending MSL champ Hersey (17-9, 7-3), the same team it shared the title with a year ago.

"It was real emotional for all of us," Greifenstein said. "It's hard to hold back the tears."

It was hard for Prospect to hold back Greifenstein in the first half when she clicked for six buckets, including three 3-pointers, for 16 of her 19 points.

The third 3-pointer was part of a 9-0 run. It gave the visitors a 27-15 lead with 1:50 left in the first half. Moments later, it was a 3-point play by junior Susannah Holifield and the lead was 30-15.

The closet Prospect came was 45-40 with 17.8 seconds left in the game.

Senior Elise Kowalski put the finishing touches on the win with a breakaway layup that made it 47-40 with four seconds left.

"I would say we definitely earned it," said Ryan Kirkorsky, the Mustangs' coach for their last four East titles. "Everyone knew there would be parity in the East.

"I think it was really our six seniors (Greifenstein, Alexa Davis, Kristin Dillon, Kathleen Maltese, Mallory Brand and Kowalski) who led us on and off the court. To come back after an emotional game the night before I was proud of how our kids responded."

Davis (7 points) set the tone when her 3-pointer gave RM a 6-2 lead.

"We have two great senior guards (Davis and Greifenstein) and at this time of the year, you want the ball in their hands," Kirkorsky said. "And I thought they did an exceptional job. And our other kids stepped up in their roles and did everything we asked of them."

Seniors Ashley Adams and Jessica Kowalczyk led Prospect (13-9, 5-5) with 12 points apiece while classmate Helen Siavelis and sophomore Eliot Dujotrek each had 6.

The Knights were without starting forward Abbey Danciu (head injury) for the second straight game but the senior is expected back when Prospect hosts Schaumburg on Tuesday.

"That really hurt because Abbey is really the heart and soul of our team," Siavelis said. "She does everything for us. If it's not something on the court, it's just emotionally and mentally. She is always there for us. So not having her on floor was a huge absence, offensively and defensively.

"But we gave it our all. We are proud that we did everything we could. We left the floor with no regrets. We did our best."

Knights first-year coach Marie Miller was proud of her team.

"We can play with them," she said. "Unfortunately we had a lot of good shots that we just didn't knock down. We were under control and played our game. We have nothing to hang our heads about. We'll get ready for our crossover on Tuesday and then go from there."

The Mustangs will head to Wednesday's title game when they host West champion Fremd.

"It's exciting," Greifenstein added. "We came out strong and had the confidence from the night before and that just propelled us even further."