Girls Basketball: Victoria Swift sets tone for Lyons

Updated: December 10, 2011 8:06PM

Lyons’ Victoria Swift may be a freshman but she sure doesn’t play like one.

The 5-foot-7 guard, who also plays AAU ball for the Chicago Hoops Express, doesn’t let much faze her.

After her team missed the first eight shots against Riverside-Brookfield on Saturday, Swift took over, knocking down three first-half three-pointers to get her team going en route to a 48-41 nonconference victory in LaGrange.

“I’ve been working on my shot and I’m so glad it finally came together for this game,” said Swift, who finished with 13 points. “Coach (Katie Meyers) told me that even though I’m on varsity as a freshman, she’s holding me to the exact same expectations she holds the seniors to. I play outside of school and I think that really helped me prepare for this opportunity.”

Lyons led 29-15 at halftime but R-B came roaring back behind senior forward Meghan Orgler. She scored 12 points in the third quarter as the Bulldogs closed to within one at 34-33 to start the fourth quarter.

R-B was able to tie the game up at 37-37 with 4 minutes, 55 seconds remaining but a field goal by Ashanti Davis (nine points) and four straight free throws by Colleen Connors gave the Lions control of the game.

“It was a really ugly win but we pulled it out,” said Connors, who went 6-for-7 from the free-throw line and finished with nine points. “It was really important for me to hit them to keep us up in the game. It was a good way to finish the game.”

Orgler led R-B in the loss with a game-high 14 points. Elena Duve had seven points while Brittney JnoBaptiste finished with six points.

“It was a still a good game and in my opinion our team really competed with them,” Orgler said. “Last year we had a really bad loss to LT. We just have to minimize the turnovers. That’s what really killed us today.”

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