Rosner notches his 300th career win at Streamwood

Proudly wearing his new Chicago White Sox leather coat, Streamwood girls basketball coach George Rosner looked quite comfortable even in the middle of January.

The 3-time World Series champion jacket was given to him by his players during a brief ceremony held immediately following the Sabres' 54-41 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory over St. Charles North Friday night in St. Charles.

The celebration was for Rosner's 300th career coaching triumph at Streamwood (342 total wins).

"It was a little present they had saved for whenever it was going to come," said Rosner, who was surrounded by his current team, some former players, parents, family members and other well-wishers near halfcourt.

The significance of reaching the 300-win plateau as Sabres coach was an emotional one for Rosner.

"Wow," he said. "Seeing the surprise of former players (Rita Castans and Tina Brooks, among others) here of which I knew nothing about it means a lot. It's a lot of great memories and times.

"It makes you really appreciate what I've been able to do, and it means a lot to me."

As for the game itself, the Sabres (15-3, 6-1) didn't get off to a particularly good start, falling behind a spirited St. Charles North (8-10, 4-2) team by 7 points after one quarter, 18-11.

Tess Fischer and Kate Booe scored 13 of the North Stars' 18 first-period points.

When sophomore guard Alex Silverman canned a 3-pointer midway through the second quarter, the North Stars' lead grew to 21-12.

And the Sabres regrouped during a timeout.

"Coach let us know what we were doing wrong but it fired us up and made us come out harder in that second quarter," said 5-11 senior forward Emma Schmidt, who shared team scoring honors with 6-3 center Michelle Tomczak (9 rebounds, 6 blocked shots) with 16 points apiece.

Tomczak's buzzer-beating putback capped a 9-0 run that tied the game at 21-21 at the half.

"We knew they were going to come out fired up," Rosner said of the North Stars. "The good thing was we hung in and it wasn't a huge deficit. We closed that pretty quickly. The second quarter was really the key. We scored enough but we were outstanding defensively, really from the second quarter on. We looked like a different team."

The Sabres continued to display tenacious defense during 15-5 third-quarter surge that helped them build a 36-26 advantage. They held the North Stars without a field goal throughout the entire third period (16-plus minutes overall).

"That's what happens when you go through a couple quarters and you score eight points against a good team," said North Stars coach Colleen Brennan. "We just had a hard time making a basket."

Fischer led the North Stars with 13 points before fouling out in the final seconds.

Deja Moore added 8 of her 12 points for the Sabres, who stayed atop the UEC River Division with the victory.

"We understand that every time we take the floor we are in a fight for first place," said Rosner. "Every game is meaningful if we want to win conference."

Schmidt, meanwhile, was proud to be a part of her coach's milestone achievement.

"It's a great honor to be able to be with him for four years and see our team grow," said Schmidt. "Going from four wins to seven wins to 14 a year ago, and now 15 this season, it's great.

"We needed a win to stay in the fight for first place (in conference)," added Schmidt.

"All of that makes this so much better. It's really fun to be on this team."