Girls Basketball: Naperville Central falls to Mother McAuley in OT

Updated: December 29, 2011 5:59PM

Naperville Central just couldn’t get rid of Mother McAuley on Thursday afternoon in the consolation championship game of the Dundee-Crown Charger Classic. The Redhawks had a chance to win it in regulation, and held a six-point lead in overtime. However, the Mighty Macs fought back to force double-overtime and pulled out 67-62 win.

“We have great kids,” said Mother McAuley coach Karen Ade. “We played defense when we needed to and got key rebounds when we needed to. It was sloppy and ugly but our kids never gave up.”

The Mighty Macs (10-6) took a 52-50 lead on a three-pointer from Tiffany Fortune with 2:07 remaining in regulation. The Redhawks (8-7) immediately tied the game on a basket from Victoria Trowbridge. After turnovers from each team, Mother McAuley had a chance for the win but Fortune’s shot was off the mark as the teams went into overtime.

Central opened the overtime period on an 8-2 run. A free throw from Emma Donahue put the Redhawks up 60-54 with 55.1 seconds remaining.

The Mighty Macs then went into a full-court press for the first time all game and forced two turnovers, which turned into baskets as the lead was cut to 60-58 with 38.8 seconds left after a bucket from Fortune. Mother McAuley forced another turnover with its press, and Alyssa Siwek drained two free throws with 25.8 seconds left to tie the game at 60.

After yet another turnover, Mother McAuley had a chance for the win but couldn’t get the shot off.

“We didn’t want to turn the ball over there, that’s for sure,” said Central coach Andy Nussbaum. “When it was 60-60 I thought Donahue got fouled. What do I tell the kids? We certainly made some mistakes. I thought we got some bad breaks down the stretch.”

Playing without starting guard Jill D’Amico made it that much harder for the Redhawks to break the press.

“We knew their one guard wasn’t there so they only really had one guard who could handle the ball, so we figured we’d start trapping,” Ade said. “Apparently we should have done that the whole game, but you never know what would have happened.”

The Mighty Macs ran away with it in the second overtime. Siwek opened it with a three-pointer en route to outscoring the Redhawks 7-2 in the frame.

Siwek led Mother McAuley with a team-high 21 points, and Fortune added 19 points.

Donahue scored a game-high 24 points for Central, and Sarah Lang scored a career-high 14 points. Trowbridge and Laura Dierking each added eight points.

“We have some success to build on,” said Nussbaum, whose team went 2-2 at the tournament and finished in 10th place out of 16 teams. “There’s not too many tournaments in the state where you play Mother McAuley in the consolation championship.”

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