Elk Grove upsets Downers Grove North
Downers Grove North's inside-out game burned Elk Grove in the first half, so Elk Grove did a little inside-outing of its own.
The Grenadiers flipped its 2-3 zone to a 3-2 in the second half to halt the Trojans perimeter attack, carrying them to a 37-34 victory Thursday and a spot in the Bill Neibch Falcon Classic semifinals Friday at Wheaton North.
"(The 2-3 zone) worked well for us the past few games, but they were kind of eating it up," Elk Grove coach Jennifer Buxton said. "We have a lot of speed, so we thought, Hey, let's match their shooters with some of our speed and went to a 3-2 zone on the fly.
"I thought our girls did a real nice job adjusting on the fly. ... We got some nice steals out of it, reading what they were trying to do."
In the third quarter Elk Grove turned a 22-16 deficit into a 29-25 advantage, limiting Downers North to just 3 points and forcing 8 turnovers.
Senior guard Megan Murray broke out in the period. After being held to two points in the first half, Murray scored six points to go with three steals in the third.
The Loras College commit finished with a game-high 16 points and, as the point of the 3-2 defense, 6 steals.
"They put a lot of pressure on her in the first half and she was getting a little frustrated," Buxton said. "She was able to take a deep breath and accept that defensive pressure and play through it."
Despite the demoralizing third quarter Downers North didn't quit.
The Trojans tied things at 29-29 before four straight points from Murray swung things back to the Grenadiers.
Late in the fourth, a bucket by Eleanor Harris, who had a team-high 11 points and 8 rebounds, and a 3-pointer from Ella Sebek each cut the deficit to one possession.
But a long 3-point try at the buzzer fell short for the Trojans, the tournament's top seed who will now for fifth place.
For Downers North coach Stephan Bolt it was a confluence of problems that plagued his squad.
"We weren't tough enough to be good finishers around the basket and had a hard time shooting the ball tonight. And too many careless turnovers," he said. "There was a stretch of them making baskets and we didn't even get shots," he said.
"They deserved to win," Bolt added. "We made a little run because our kids fight till the end and I'm proud of them for that, but they deserved to win."
Early on it looked like Downers Grove North had a handle on this one. It ran out to an 8-3 lead that was 10-5 after the first.
The lead expanded to 22-16 at halftime thanks to four first-half 3-pointers: two from Kate Gross, and one apiece from Ellie Gross and Sebek. Harris chipped in 6 points.
But Elk Grove sophomore Lili Duckmann kept her team in the ballgame with 9 first-half points en route to 14 total.
In the second half, though, the Grenadiers' 3-2 defense stymied the Trojans, whose only second-half trey came with less than a minute to play.
"With our speed we like to create offense from our defense with the steals we create," Buxton said. "We want to play these good teams, we want to play some of the best teams and DGN is a great team."
Elk Grove will take on Willowbrook, a team the Grenadiers beat 53-40 on Dec. 21, with a title shot on the line.