Lake Zurich Girls Split in Sweet Sixteen

In the Maine West Sweet Sixteen basketball tournament hosted by Lake Zurich High School on Saturday, the Bears girls basketball team split their two games, winning the morning contest 35-33 against Hinsdale Central, while losing the night game 45-33 to Providence Catholic.

The morning game was indeed a strange contest. The Bears were up 33-18 at the beginning of the second half when they went ice cold and didn’t score for the final 15 minutes and 40 seconds of the game.

“I’ve seen about 3,000 games over the years, between the games I’ve coached and the games I’ve scouted, and I’ve never seen a game like that,” said Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett.

Outscored 15-2 down the stretch by the Red Devils, the Bears had fortunately built up a sizable enough lead to hang on and win the game. Lake Zurich scored in the first 20 seconds of the third quarter, and that basket turned out to be their last points of the game.

“If someone told me that we would score just two points in the entire second half and not score again for the remainder of the game and still win, I would have laughed,” said Bennett.

Cathryne Spear led the Bears with 10 points, and Katherine Anderson, Maisie Cox and Stephanie Schmid each scored 6 points.

“We’re playing very inconsistent,” said Spear. “I don’t really know what happened or why we didn’t score for the rest of the game. I know that are shot selection was bad.”

In a side note, Lake Zurich’s Karlissa Skarb was injured when she took a foot to the stomach, eventually leaving the game. Skarb didn't play in the night game against Providence Catholic.

In the nightcap, Lake Zurich was never seriously in the game after the middle of the second quarter against the Celtics. After Providence jumped out to a 7-3 lead, the Bears scored a pair of field goals to tie the score at 7. But the Celtics began to pull away midway through the second quarter.

After the Bears pulled to within a point, 12-11, when Stephanie Schmid hit a post-up to the left of the net, Providence went on a 14-2 run through the balance of the quarter, and led 26-13 at the half.

The Celtics shooting star was junior guard Cassidy Glenn, who scored all of her team’s 7 points in the first quarter, and finished with 25 points on the night.

“She’s a great player,” said Bennett. “She was doing a whole bunch of things out there tonight.”

Glenn’s torrid pace tapered off after the first half of the game, which actually spelled more trouble for the Bears. If her teammates hadn’t been able to pick her up, it’s possible that she might have started to tire in the second half.

But sophomore forward Sam Rohrer, senior guard Emily Persak and senior center Danielle Barry started sinking shots to pick up some of the scoring slack for the Celtics, who led 37-19 after three quarters.

Lake Zurich played their best quarter in the fourth, when they outscored Providence 14-8. Unfortunately, the deficit was too great to overcome.

“Our passing game was off—there was no pass back,” said Spear. “We also had too many traveling violations. There were also a number of times where I think we needed to be more aggressive. Reach out an arm to try and break up a play and go for the ball. If we had done more of that, I think it would have made a difference.”

Bears Pause: Stephanie Schmid’s 6 points in the first game were the result of a pair of 3-pointers. Karlissa Skarb had a 3-pointer as well. The Bears had none in the second contest. Skarb will have an MRI to determine the extent of her stomach injury.

“We need her to get healthy. We’re going to really need her in two weeks,” said Bennett, referring to the Bears entering the tournament portion of the season.

 Next Up: 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 1, in a home game against Stevenson; 6:30 p.m.,  Saturday, Feb. 5, in a home game against Zion-Benton, which also will be Junior Bears Night.