Girls Basketball: St Joseph edges out Proviso West

Updated: December 17, 2011 8:08PM

St. Joseph sophomore Chanel Brown came off the bench in the second half and provided her team with some badly needed offense and rebounding, scoring the Chargers’ last five points and sinking the game-winning free throws with seven seconds to play in a 49-47 nonconference victory over Proviso West Saturday in Westchester.

The 5-foot-9 center/forward played only a minute in the first half and wasn’t a factor until she scored after an offensive rebound to bring St. Joseph (8-2) to within 37-36 to close the third quarter. Brown proceeded to spark the Chargers in the final period when a similar play gave them a 40-37 advantage with 5 minutes, 45 seconds left to play.

After Proviso West (7-7) went back on top 46-42 in the fourth on a basket by sophomore Mikaela Boyd (nine points, two steals), and a steal and coast-to-coast layup by senior Jasmine Jackson (16 points), Brown went to work.

The Panthers’ Deana Woods (10 points) hit one of two from the foul line with 53 seconds left and snared the rebound on the miss, but Brown swiped a pass and popped in a jumper before senior guard Arriel Anderson (11 points, four rebounds) sank a pair of free throws to bring the Chargers within one at 47-46.

As Proviso West turned the ball over on its next possession and Woods was fouled, hitting 1-of-2 from the line to knot the score at 47-47. As Proviso drove upcourt for what looked to be one last shot, Woods came up with her another steal with seven seconds to play and was fouled.

She “calmly” swished both free throws, Proviso West missed a shot at the buzzer, and the Chargers escaped with a two-point win.

“On those last two free throws I was very scared,” Brown admitted. “I felt like everything was on me, and if I missed them I probably would have gone to the locker room and cried. I like to come in and help my team on offense because I know I’m not the best defensive player out there, and I think I did that today.”

Brown acknowledged that her team really slowed down offensively after a quick start, hitting eight shots in the first quarter and then only seven more over the next three quarters. Brown connected on three of the Chargers’ final four baskets and hit 3-of-4 from the foul line for her nine points and five rebounds – all in the second half.

“I didn’t think we had it today, but coach told us to slow things down, and once we all got focused we pulled it out at the end,” Brown said. “He also reminded us to hit our free throws like we do in practice – and we did.”

St. Joseph head coach Jim Maley agreed that a 19-13 first-quarter lead evaporated mainly because the Chargers missed several layups, five straight at one point, and the squad was just 10-of-20 from the charity stripe in the first half. The Chargers canned 9-of-11 free throws after halftime, including seven down the stretch.

“Nothing was going in for us after the first quarter and rebounding was the key for us,” said Maley, whose team out-rebounded Proviso 33-24. “They out-rebounded us early, but we (coaches) told them rebounding is going to win or lose this game, and Chanel Brown and Shaakera Jones (four rebounds in the fourth quarter) seemed like they went up high and got every ball in the final period.”

Maley added nothing Brown, who played varsity as a freshman, does surprises him.

“She can handle the ball like a point guard, she passes very well, she can dribble and she can play the post. She can pretty much do everything on offense. She’s working on her speed on defense, and if she was a speed merchant, she’d probably play every minute of every game, but she’ll get there.”

Maley added he encouraged his girls to go out and shoot some free throws during halftime before the start of the second half.

“I said, ‘If it was me playing I would work on my free-throw shooting,’ and some of them did that and we fared much better from the line in the second half,” he said. “Brown is a cool customer, she doesn’t let things affect her and if I wanted someone on the line in that situation she would be one of my top two picks.”

As for the missed layups, the St. Joseph coach acknowledged his team could have had a big lead if some had fallen.

“We had so many layups, I told the coaches if we had hit half of them we would be up by 25 points,” Maley said. “Some days they just don’t go down. Proviso West plays good defense. You have to work so hard to penetrate and get it to the basket against them, then to miss the easy part is frustrating. But that’s part of the game, we’ll work on it.”

St. Joseph senior Donna Koerber, who sat out much of the second half with a knee injury, led the Chargers with 13 points and six rebounds. Briya Wilborn added seven points and five boards, while Kaci Beemon tallied four points and two rebounds and Deja Horn had three points and four rebounds.

Junior Candace Madison tallied two points but pulled down 11 rebounds for the Panthers.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.