LOMBARD — For three quarters, Marian Catholic struggled to find its shot, shooting 11 of 41 against Oak Park-River Forest in the opening round round of the Montini Christmas Tournament on Friday.
The fourth quarter was a different story.
The Spartans started getting up and down the court with ease and shot 8 of 11 in the fourth en route to a 52-46 victory over the scrappy Huskies.
“We just didn’t execute until the fourth quarter,” Marian Catholic junior guard Gabrielle Cooper said. “We finished better than we started and that’s all that matters.”
The goal for OPRF was to slow the game down as much as possible.
“They’re so much more athletic than us and we knew our only chance was to make it a junk game,” Huskies coach J.P. Coughlin said. “We threw junk defenses at them all game and we really wanted to keep the score in the 40’s and they got to the 50’s, which proved to be enough.”
The stats for the two teams over the first three quarters couldn’t be any more contrasting. Through three, OPRF (6-9) was 7 of 8 from 3-point range and 1 of 15 inside the arc. Marian Catholic (10-1) was 3 of 20 from beyond the arc and 8 of 21 from two-point range. The result was a 29-29 tie heading to the fourth.
A bucket by Cooper and a three-point play by Teniya Page gave the Spartans a 34-29 advantage. OPRF took a 39-38 lead after starting to hit some inside shots.
But another bucket by Cooper and a 3-pointer by Page with 3:45 to play gave Marian Catholic the lead for good.
“We came out and did what we were supposed to and then we just stopped,” Page said. “But I think we knew we were going to pull away and win it at the end.”
Cooper led all scorers with 19 points while Page finished with 16. Emily Schreck had 12 points for OPRF and Maria Kent had 10.