Powerful Peotone cools off Lisle

Coming off an emotional victory over Manteno on Monday, the Lisle girls basketball team knew it would have its hands full Thursday against powerful Peotone.

They were absolutely right.

The Blue Devils showed no quarter in a 56-18 victory over the Lions, placing three players in double figures in scoring.

OK, so it was a loss - a tough one, but there were bright spots for Lisle.

Exhibit A: Senior center Kylie Russell, who put together a solid first half, what with 7 rebounds and 4 blocked shots in addition to 5 points.

Exhibit B: The bench mob, which was led by senior guard Grace Rossin, who grabbed 5 rebounds of her own. In all, the non-starters had 11 rebounds and scored 5 points. That bested Peotone's bench, which only had 4 points and 6 boards.

Exhibit C: Though the Blue Devils raced out to a lead of 18-6 at the end of the first quarter, the Lions battled back to cut the lead to 23-12 on a 3-pointer from senior guard Ainslie Klein, leaving coach Nick Balaban to wonder if his crew might dig themselves out of their hole.

It didn't happen.

"We always say the first four minutes of the second half us going to be an indicator of what's going to happen, and if we can fight and scrap and compete and cut into that lead," Balaban said. "We were so flat coming into the second half."

This is true. The Lions weren't able to put a point on the board until the 3:10 mark of the third quarter, on a 3-pointer from the right arc from sophomore guard Crystal McHugh. Before that, though, Peotone put up an 11-0 run that took a 31-12 halftime lead to 42-12.

And that, as they say, was that. Lisle (11-12, 6-4 in the Illinois Central Eight) could only muster 3 free throws the rest of the way.

"Seeing as my team was down when I went in the game, I really wanted to win and I really wanted to beat them, and so I just went in there and tried as hard as I can," Rossin said. "I tried to put the ball up and shoot, but they don't always fall."

Here's an interesting stat. Of Peotone's 56 points, 40 came in the paint, typically a no-footer. And yet, Russell still had 7 rebounds (3 offensive) and those 4 blocks.

"They can drive the middle," she said with a smile.

Sophomore Madi Schroeder finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds and scored every point for the Blue Devils (20-4, 12-0) in the second quarter (13). Junior Jenna Hunter scored 14 points of her own, while fellow junior Marissa Velasco chipped in 11 points and 5 rebounds.