Huntley 4th, SCN 5th at D-C; Maine South takes crown
Huntley's Jessie Ozzauto took a pass from teammate Anna Campanelli and floated a shot into the basket from just over half court at the second-quarter buzzer, giving the Red Raiders some much needed momentum after Stevenson stormed out to a 17-point lead.
Huntley trailed by four at half and cut the lead to one after three quarters, but it was the Patriots who took over from there.
Stevenson, last year's Class 4A state champion, dominated the Raiders over the final eight minutes, outscoring Huntley 14-6 and forcing huge turnovers late as the Patriots came away with a 46-37 win Thursday in the third-place game of Dundee-Crown's Komaromy Classic.
Stevenson (11-6) fell to the Raiders 54-52 in double overtime on Dec. 10 at Hoffman Estates' NOW Arena and has been on the wrong end of many close games this year.
Patriots coach Ashley Graham challenged her team to change that.
"We've lost four games by a total of 10 points," Graham said. "We talked about how we are just as good as anyone on our schedule. I wrote it on the board. After tonight, we were finishing games, we were going to be closers. And we became closers tonight."
Stevenson was led by junior forward Emory Klatt with 15 points, including 10 in the first quarter, and 10 rebounds. Nisha Musunuri added 13 points, making 6 of 8 free throws, and Kate Arne chipped in eight points, with six in the second half.
Huntley trailed 42-37 with 1:40 remaining after a steal and layup by Ozzauto, but had three straight empty possessions after that.
Ozzauto led Huntley with 13 points and five rebounds, and Sammi Campanelli had 10 points. No other player had more than four points.
"They played really good defense, and I think that we just struggled to get into our stuff," Sammi Campanelli said of Stevenson. "I think there was a lot of miscommunication, so that didn't really help us either. We have a lot to learn, but I think this will help us a lot."
Huntley coach Steve Raethz hopes the Raiders can use the experience of the past four days and turn it into something good for the second half.
"It was a tough tournament," Raethz said. "We played four quality opponents, and that's what we wanted out of this. We're going to take the experiences from these four days, learn from it, grow from it, and use it as a springboard to start the second half of the season."
St. Charles North 58, Hampshire 36:
In the fifth-place game, the North Stars came out firing, hitting eight of their first 14 shots, and cruised to a win against the Whip-Purs.
Alyssa Hughes led North (12-4) with 24 points and four 3s, Reagan Sipla added 12 points and seven rebounds, and Katrina Stark tossed in 10 points. Hughes and Sipla were named to the all-tournament team.
Hampshire was unable to solve St. Charles North's press, especially in the first half, and made 10 turnovers in the first quarter. The North Stars were 22-of-46 shooting from the field for 47.8% and led 52-22 going into the fourth quarter.
"When you play a team that's shooting as well as they were, you really have to execute the game plan, and we didn't," Hampshire coach Eric Samuelson said. "Against their press, I don't want to say we were scared [in the first half], but I thought in the second half we were much better at aggressively breaking it."
Lia Saunders had nine points on three 3s for the Whips (11-6), Kaitlyn Milison scored eight points, and Avery Cartee chipped in six points and five rebounds.
Saunders and Whitey Thompson were named to the all-tournament team.
"Those two show up for us every game," Samuelson said.
Maine South 59, Barrington 58:
After losing to Barrington by four points early this season at the Buffalo Grove tournament, Maine South was looking for some revenge against the Fillies Thursday night in the championship game of the 39th Annual Komaromy Classic tourney at Dundee-Crown.
Unlike the past two games, there was no slow start for Barrington Thursday as the Fillies built a 16-8 lead after one quarter before taking a 21-12 lead midway through the second period.
But Maine South hung tough late in the first half as the Hawks were able to cut the lead to 26-23 at halftime despite 12 points by Barrington senior Sophie Swanson.
Maine South really turned the tables on the Fillies in the third quarter as the Hawks outscored Barrington 24-10 to take a 47-36 lead into the final quarter.
From there, Maine South (13-3) held on until the final seconds as it secured an exciting 59-58 victory for the Hawks' second D-C tourney title in school history.
"It was a great third quarter. Barrington is a special basketball team and to be able to beat them is an honor," said Maine South coach Jeff Hamann, whose team also won the tourney in 2012. "It is the way the Dundee-Crown basketball tournament is supposed to be and we knocked down some shots in the second half, especially in the third quarter."
Like the semifinal game against Stevenson, Barrington (13-5) made a big comeback in the fourth quarter as two free throws by Swanson (18 points) cut the lead to 58-56 with 27.7 seconds to play.
A free throw by Maine South's Ally Pape (15 points) made the score 59-56 before Barrington's Ashley Mahlum scored with seven seconds left to cut the gap to 59-58. The Hawks missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 5.3 seconds to go. But the Hawks forced a turnover from Swanson with 0.5 seconds left near midcourt to seal the win.
"In my opinion it came down to turning the ball over and we didn't make good decisions," said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. "We play hard and we're gritty, but Maine South plays hard and they're gritty."
Barrington's Molly O'Riordan had a game-high 24 points and 7 rebounds while teammate Gwen Adler had 10 points and 17 rebounds. Maine South's balanced offense got 17 points from Meegan Fahy, 15 points from Ally Pape, 12 points from Katie Barker, 9 points from Asia Kobylarczyk, and 6 points from Ava Blagojevich.
"Our plan was to shut down Sophie and Molly and keep pushing the ball up the floor," said Fahy, who had 11 points in the second half. "Winning this tournament proves we are a team that is going to compete."
- John Bumbales