Girls Basketball: Romeoville wins own tourney on tiebreaker

Updated: November 21, 2011 10:58PM

Romeoville won a holiday girls basketball tournament for the first time since 1984 by beating Lockport 44-14 in the final game of its own Thanksgiving Tournament on Monday in Romeoville.

The Spartans and Plainfield Central each went 4-0 in the six-team tournament. The Spartans were awarded the championship trophy based on differential.

“Our goal was to go 3-1, which would have been better than we did last year (2-2),” Romeoville coach Julio Carrasco said after the win over Lockport (2-2). “We exceeded that and we got a chance to see a lot of players play. The girls did a nice job.”

Abby Smith had nine points and Nicole Ramagalia chipped in eight for the Spartans.

Plainfield Central remained unbeaten by beating Rockford Guilford (0-4) by a 59-49 count.

Brigid Hanley had 16 points, five rebounds and five assists before fouling out for Plainfield Central. Alex Harrison added 13 points and four steals but injured her shoulder.

Lauren Kulaga led the Wildcats with nine rebounds. Jessica Kaminski chipped in six rebounds, four assists and six steals.

“It’s nice to be 4-0 and already surpass our win total of last year,” coach Mark Krusz said of the Wildcats, who were 3-22 a season ago.

The third time was the charm for Lemont in a 46-45 win over Joliet Central.

Kelsey Motto’s basket on a Claire O’Leary assist just before the buzzer was the Indians’ third crack at the winning basket.

“It was a normal play we run. We ran it right, I set the screen and it worked out,” Motto said. “Hopefully, we’ll go on a win streak from here.”

The winning basket came after Nijea Dixon hit a pair of free throws to give Joliet Central a 45-44 lead with 42.8 seconds to play.

“We played a lot better tonight than the first four games of the year,” Lemont coach Bill Bozue said. “That’s one of our regular plays and it worked out. I hope it gives them a little confidence.”

Dixon led all scorers with 20 points as Joliet Central went 1-3 in the tournament.

Kim Jerantowski and Courtney Toth had nine points each for Lemont (1-4).

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