Lyons’ perfect season was bound to end sometime, but that doesn’t make Tuesday’s 67-58 loss to St. Charles East in the second round of the 31st Annual Bill Neibch Holiday Classic at Wheaton North any easier.
The fourth-seeded Lions (9-1) fell behind 9-2 early and could never recover against the fifth-seeded Saints (11-2).
“It’s our first loss of the season so we haven’t really dealt with being down that much,” Lyons senior guard Gaby Galassini said. “As much as it stinks to lose this game, I think it’s going to help us build a better team for the future. We’ll go back to practice and work on all the things we didn’t do well.”
While Lyons didn’t play well in the first half, the Lions were only down 36-32 at halftime. It was their performance in the third quarter that led to the defeat. Lyons scored just five points, while St. Charles East notched 13 to take a 49-37 lead into the fourth.
“We didn’t match their intensity at the start of the game and we didn’t rebound,” Lions coach Paul Crick said. “We gave them way too many offensive rebounds and they took advantage of those second chances. They have better athletes than we do so we have to play harder and smarter and I don’t think we did that.”
Kyra Washington led the Saints with 18 points while teammate Katie Claussner finished with 17. Senior Vicki Swift added 18 for Lyons while junior Erin Corrigan contributed nine.