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Girls Basketball: Cats claw their way to victory
Updated: January 5, 2012 9:18PM
Kerry Risley scored 18 points to lead visiting Libertyivlle past Warren 45-36 in a key North Suburban Conference Lake Division game.
The Wildcats (4-2 in the division, 13-4 overall) are in the hunt as they try to repeat as conference champs.
Warren (3-3 in the division, 9-7 overall) is now looking up at four teams in the league.
One of those four is Zion-Benton, which was in the house at Warren, watching because the Bees’ game at Stevenson was postponed due to a teacher’s strike in Zion.
“We had a rough loss to Rolling Meadows in the finals of our Christmas tournament,” noted Risley, “so we wanted to come out strong tonight and set the tone for the rest of the season.
“We had the mindset that we were going to come out flying and attack, and not give them any good looks.”
Still Warren trailed just 19-16 at halftime, and 23-22 with 3:59 to play in the third quarter. Libertyville then scored eight points in a row to take a 31-22 lead, but Warren scored six straight to get within 31-28 with 5:10 to play.
Risley then sparked another 8-0 run that settled the outcome.
“I thought Kerry did a great job tonight. She was very aggressive looking for her shot,” said winning coach Kathie Swanson. “She played off what they gave her in their zone.
“(Defensively), She had a tough task when Nicole (Kruckman, the Cats’ center) was in foul trouble. (Warren center Jessica) Prince is a tough match for her, but she held her own.”
For Warren, Prince had 16 points.
“It puts us at 3-3 and two games behind the leaders,” said Warren coach John Stanczykiewicz. “We reminded the girls that’s what they were playing for today. They were disappointed. They know what was at stake.
“We played hard. We competed for 32 minutes. We just need to execute better.”
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