St. Charles East 43, Addison Trail 41
They say you always find things in the last place you look -- and St. Charles East ended its game-long search for its shooting touch in the fourth quarter.
And not a moment too soon either.
On the brink of a nonconference upset loss to Addison Trail, the host Saints started hitting shots -- especially from 3-points range -- to force overtime and then to defeat the Blazers 43-41.
"We struggled shooting all night," St. Charles East coach Lori Drumtra said. "I was really proud of the way they battled. You're going to have games like this, where your offense doesn't seem to be clicking."
The win is the seventh straight for St. Charles East (8-4) and featured plenty of late-game heroics.
The last 3 baskets hit by the Saints in the fourth quarter were all 3-pointers. Katie King hit the first, Natasha Lalos drained the second and Lexi Baltes hit the game-tying shot with 51 seconds to play to tie the score at 34.
"We're a good shooting team," King said. "We work hard inside too. But we work really hard on shooting in practice and it's showing in the games."
Addison Trail (3-12) jumped to a 37-34 lead to start the overtime but King hit a 3-pointer to tie the contest again.
"Good screens are key to getting good looks," King said. "We did a nice job of having our screens set, having our feet ready and getting good passes to get good looks at the basket."
Addison Trail again moved ahead, this time to 41-37 with 1:05 left when Erica Spear scored the last of her game-high 15 points while completing a 3-point play.
This time the Saints went inside to come back. Kara Schnier hit back-to-back shots then Jaime Rust hit a layup with 13 seconds left to win the contest.
Addison Trail was aware of the number of times it was in position to close the victory.
"Fundamentals, things we've been working on all year," Addison Trail coach Rob Schader. "We turned the ball over twice at the end (of regulation.) It was the same in overtime. Just stupid mistakes."
Lalos scored 10 points to lead St. Charles East in a game where both offenses took awhile to get settled. The halftime score was 15-15.