Girls Basketball: Gabrielle Rush finds range as Hinsdale Central downs Oak Park

Updated: December 17, 2011 12:20AM

Once Hinsdale Central’s Gabrielle Rush found the range from downtown it was lights out for host Oak Park-River Forest as the freshman guard tied a career high with 29 points in 72-59 West Suburban Silver victory Friday night.

Rush broke a 38-38 tie with 1:44 to play in the third quarter when she drained back-to-back three-pointers after a Maddie Roglich (11 points, five rebounds) free throw to help give the Red Devils (4-6, 3-3 conference) a seven-point cushion heading into the final period. Another pair of treys and eight consecutive free throws down the stretch was too much for the Huskies (2-10, 2-3) to overcome on their home floor.

“We just seemed to do everything right tonight,” Rush said. “We were running really good plays, really stopping them with good defense, and that seemed to spark our offense. This is a huge win for us. It puts us at 3-3 in the conference, and still in contention to win it.”

Oak Park kept the score close in the first half without any point contribution from senior standout Stekara Hall, who picked up her third foul with 4:49 left in the second quarter and sat out until after halftime. Even her 14 second-half points weren’t enough to offset the offensive show put on by Hinsdale Central’s Rush and junior Lily Sarros, who hauled in 13 rebounds to go along with 23 points, including hitting 5-of-6 from the charity stripe in final two quarters, four in the waning minutes.

“We have a balance of seniors and young kids on this team and after going 3-26 last year we’re 3-3 in the league, so this was a big win for us. We think now we can contend in the second half,” Hinsdale Central coach Tom McKenna said. “This is huge for us psychologically because this is a good team we beat. They scored 91 points the other night (in a 101-91 loss to Fenwick) and now I think we are really coming together as a team.

“Gabrielle and Lily both had tremendous games for us. I thought we were very patient on offense. Earlier in the year we were impatient, jacking up shots from anywhere, and I thought we did a good job of looking for the open player. I thought we had great offensive balance. We could go inside to Sarros early in the game and later outside to Rush. When you give her open threes, watch out.”

Hinsdale Central led 31-28 at the break, but the Red Devils defense was able to slow down all of the Huskies except Hall. Huskies junior Caroline Kelty had a team-high 17 points but managed only three in the second half. Junior Emily Vachon scored 10 points, senior Jasmin Walker added seven and senior Biz Mullins chipped in six on a pair of three-pointers.

The Red Devils also won the battle of the free-throw line, sinking 20-of-27 (13-of-14 in the fourth quarter) to 15-of-22 for Oak Park 6-of-8 in the final period).

The contest went back and forth early as there were five ties and four lead changes in the first quarter, after which Hinsdale Central held a 16-12 advantage. The Red Devils broke a 12-12 tie when sophomore Jenna Broz (four points) hit a pair of free throws with 23 seconds left in the period and Rush followed that with a steal and a coast-to-coast layup.

Kelty scored seven straight points early in the second to put the Huskies up 21-17 at the 6:13 mark but minutes later Hall went out with her third foul. With 2:15 to play before halftime and the score 25-25, Madison Grace hit a jumper before Sarros connected on two straight hoops to put Hinsdale ahead.

Oak Park took a 36-33 advantage with 5:05 to play in the third quarter after an 8-2 run led by Hall, but the Red Devils came right back with a 9-4 run of its own and never trailed again.

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