Zion-Benton, Waukegan grab victories

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:02PM

It was a crazy Day 1 of action in the prep girls basketball tournament hosted by Deerfield High, including a strange-but-true finish in the Zion-Benton/Niles West matchup and a barn-burner between Waukegan and Grant.

Here's a look at Thursday's action:

Zion-Benton 39, Niles West 36: The game ended with Niles superstar Jewell Loyd (18 points, 6 rebounds) missing a 3-pointer at the buzzer, but that wasn't the whole story.

Niles West led 29-22 after an entertaining first half, but decided to hold the ball for nearly the entire third quarter.

Zion-Benton scored on its third-period possession, and Niles West then held the ball against Zion's triangle-and-2 defense designed to stop Loyd for he final 5:53 of the period.

Niles' guards passed the ball back and forth without being guarded while Zion chose to keep Loyd from touching the ball.

In the fourth quarter, action resumed and Zion took the lead for good a 37-36 on a bucket in the paint by Octavia Crump (15 points, 11 rebounds) with 3:13 left. She then made it 39-36 by scoring with 1:24 left.

"I'm really proud of the girls. It was a great win for Zion-Benton," said Zion coach Tanya Johnson of the win over a highly-regarded opponent.

She praised the defensive strategy of assistant coach Frank Mattucci, who devised the defensive scheme that produced the comeback win.

Waukegan 46, Grant 44:

Tyvena Scafe hit two free throws with 33.6 seconds left to break a 43-43 tie and Waukegan held to win its first game under new coach Brandon Brown.

Grant's Kassie Stimpson hit 1 of 2 free throws with 26.6 seconds left to make it 45-44, and got the ball back after Waukegan missed two free throws.

But, Waukegan stole the ball and Marquita Wright hit 1 of 2 free throws with two seconds left to end it.

Wright had 17 points for Waukegan. Grant got 20 points from Donnie Taggart.

"The girls scared me a bit during practice, but they came out and played hard today," said Brown. "I'm proud of them."

Deerfield 62, Lake Forest 35:

Liz Yucknut scored 13 points in Deerfield's easy win.

Dana Mueller added 11 points and 6 boards off the bench for the winners.

Katie Conroy had eight points, five rebounds and five steals for the Warriors.

Evanston 69, North Chicago 30:

The Warhawks will play Lake Forest on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Round 2 of the Deerfield tourney.

In this season-opening loss to powerful Evanston, Darniqua Hood had 11 points.

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