Girls Basketball: Proviso East downs Niles West

Updated: December 22, 2011 11:20PM

Proviso East did what many have tried and few have done. The Pirates stopped Jewel Loyd.

Loyd, Niles West’s 5-foot-11 Notre Dame-bound senior, scored just 17 points on 3-of-19 shooting from the field as No. 18 Proviso East (11-2) scalded the Wolves 60-37 Thursday at the Suburban Holiday Showcase Girls Basketball Tournament in Skokie.

Loyd, who was 3-of-12 from the field in the first half, did not make a field goal in the second.

“Momma said there’d be days like this,” Niles West coach Tony Konsewicz said. “We were due for a klunker. The last two games got off to slow starts and made nice comebacks trying to get back in the game, but fundamentally we weren’t very sound tonight.

“Credit Proviso East,” the coach added. “They’re an awfully good team. Their size gave us some trouble. Obviously, starting three 6-footers causes some problems for us matchup-wise, and we have not been good finishers around the basket all season long.

“When you have a tight ballgame, and we got close in the second quarter, missing a lot of layups becomes more magnified,” Konsewicz said.

Proviso East (11-2) raced to a 19-6 lead 6:50 into the game behind eight points by Demetria Watson including a pair of three-pointers, but Niles West pulled even at 23-23 with 3:44 remaining in the half on a rebound basket by sophomore Dashae Shumate.

That was as good as it would get for the hosts.

The Pirates closed the second quarter on an 8-4 run and scored the first eight points of the second half to build a 39-27 advantage with 5:09 remaining in the third quarter. Niles West (13-2) got a three-pointer by Liz Troyk to pull within 39-30, but the Wolves went eight minutes without scoring again.

Loyd, who had 50 points in a game earlier this season, exited with her team trailing 54-34 with a little more than three minutes left to play.

“Tired legs,” Konsewicz said. “Playing this schedule and back-to-back games and another one tomorrow, you get tired. And when you get double-teamed and people are making you work that much harder trying to get open, it compounds it when you give up the ball and people don’t make layups.”

Watson led Proviso East with 19 points, Jakeisha Wells added 17 points and nine rebounds and Kalea Parks had 11 points.

“Our main focus was to keep the ball out of Loyd’s hands,” Proviso East coach Ezra Pridgeon said. “We wanted to tire her out, wear her down and make the other payers have to beat us. She was tired. She missed some shots. I think our defense had a lot to do with her being tired.

“That’s a big feat for us to be able to hold her down to 17 points,” he added. “She’s such an outstanding athlete. If she had another player that complemented her, it would be a different ballgame. It would be a lot closer.

“But she gets the ball 90 percent of the time,” Pridgeon said. “If we can keep the ball out of her hands, then we’ve done our job.”

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