The West Suburban Gold Conference girls basketball championship has gone through Hinsdale South for three straight years and the host Hornets were not about to make any concessions against No. 15 Downers Grove South Tuesday night.
Hinsdale South forced nine first-half turnovers, built as much as an 11-point lead early and then had to hang on in the final seconds to nip Downers South 56-51, ruining the Mustangs’ plan for an undefeated league title.
“It was not so much not allowing them to win the league title here, but the fact that it was beating a good Downers Grove South team that was ranked,” Hornets coach Brenda Whitesell said. “Our team was looking for a little respect out there tonight and I think we got it.”
The Hornets (19-8, 7-2) looked to close the book early, jumping out to a 21-10 first-quarter lead, as Gina Rocco scored 10 of her team-high 14 points in 4 1/2 minutes. Downers (19-4, 8-1), which trailed 31-25 at the half, received four points each from Tameka Carter (18 points, five rebounds) and Tina Koludrovic in a 10-2 run early in the third to cut the Hinsdale lead to 37-35 with 4:30 remaining.
Hinsdale South built the lead back to 47-41 heading into the fourth, but failed to score in the first 5:44 of the fourth. Carter had four of Downers’ first six points of the quarter, including a scooping layup with 2:52 remaining to knot the game at 47-47.
Hinsdale South scored the next six points, with Heather Vanhoegarden (10 points) scoring two and dishing out an assist to Jill Randa for two more to build the cushion. Carter’s two free throws with 15.8 seconds left brought Downers within 53-51, but Vanhoegarden hit two free throws in the final 12 seconds to help put the game away.
Kristen Lazzaretto had 10 points and 10 rebounds for Hinsdale.
— Phil English
Fremd 61, Barrington 48
Fremd forward Maggie Fontana said she wanted this game. More times than not when the do-it-all senior is on the court, she gets what she wants.
Fontana helped Fremd exact a sliver of revenge and in the process possibly captured the Mid-Suburban West Conference title with an all-around dominating performance in the seventh-ranked Vikings’ win over visiting Barrington Tuesday night.
Fontana finished with a game-high 30 points to go with 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals. She also played strong defense on Barrington’s Nicky Eason, who scored all seven of her points in the first half. The last time these two teams played, Eason scored all eight of Barrington’s points in overtime to help the Fillies (19-9, 7-2) to a narrow victory.
“This is probably the last time we’ll play Barrington, unless we see them in the state playoffs,” said Fontana, who will attend Holy Cross in the fall. “On our home court, we were fired up and ready to go. We wanted this game.”
If Fremd (21-3, 8-1) defeats Schaumburg on Friday it will win the MSL West title for the second time in three years. Barrington, which had beaten Fremd the last four meetings, was the defending champion.
The Vikings broke the game open in the second quarter when Fontana started with a three-pointer before feeding Katie Straka for another three-pointer. She then recorded two straight steals, which resulted in four points, to cap a 10-0 run in the first three minutes and give the Vikings a 25-10 advantage. Barrington never drew within eight points for the rest of the game.
Straka hit two of Fremd’s four three-pointers in the second quarter as it went into the half leading 33-24. Straka scored eight of her 13 points in the second quarter. She also had four steals.
Cathy Mangan (seven points) held Barrington’s high-scoring guard Lindsay Richards to 14 points. Danielle Tinkoff added 12 points for Barrington.
— Sean Duncan
Hinsdale Central 57, Wheaton Warrenville South 35: Melanie Ploger scored 15 points on five three-pointers to lead the top-ranked Red Devils (24-0) to the non-conference win. Morgan Kasperek added 14 points and Maggie Acuna had eight points, 12 assists, five rebounds and four steals for Hinsdale Central.
Hillcrest 74, Tinley Park 27: Nadia Bibbs scored 16 points and Janelle Hughes and Sherry McCracklin scored 14 points for the No. 6 Hawks (21-1) the SICA Central rout.
New Trier 44, Maine West 32: Shana Franklin scored 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the No. 16 Trevians.Jessie Forman had 13 points and 11 rebounds for New Trier (21-7). Katie Panegasser’s eight points led Maine West (16-11), which was playing without leading scorer Linnea O’Neill.
Plainfield 75, Glenbard South 38: Kristin Shutt led No. 18 Plainfield with 15 points and Kristin Johnston added 10 points in the Suburban Prairie Red.
Deerfield 49, Carmel 44: The Warriors (15-8) came back from a 35-29 deficit behind Erin Greeter’s 12 points and 11 points from Erika Odlaug. Caitlin Kromback scored 17 points to lead Carmel (17-8).
Evanston 33, Vernon Hills 31: Claire Gezoff score nine points for Evanston (11-12) including the winning free throws with eight seconds left in the game.
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Hyde Park 63, Manley 62: Bianca Brooks scored 28 points and Latasha Watt added 23 points including the game-winning layup with 15 seconds left for Hyde Park (11-10, 4-6) in the Public Superconference win. Simeon 45, Bowen 32: Erin Bridges and Jasmin Binns scored 12 points each for Simeon (20-5, 10-0) as Simeon clinched the Public South title.
Sycamore 52, Yorkville 42: Sycamore remained a perfect 13-0 in the Suburban Prairie White behind 16 points from Angela Brown. Alesia Perry scored 15 points to lead Yorkville (18-5, 12-3).
Westinghouse 59, Prosser 46: Erica Simon scored 33 points, grabbed 28 rebounds and made 10 steals as the Warriors (9-13) picked up the victory in the Public Super.
Girls gymnastics
Stevenson defended their home gym well, sweeping past four opponents at the gymnastics regional with a score of 151.03.
Lindsay Borkan led the way for the Patriots, sweeping all four events and the all-around with a 39.27 score.
“We’re doing better as team,” Borkan said. “But there is room for improvement.”
Although Borkan won all the events, Stevenson gymnasts took the top five places in the vault and bars, and four of the top five finishers in beam, floor and all-around.