Girls Basketball: Tami Morice, Waubonsie Valley hold off Schaumburg

Updated: December 26, 2011 10:14PM

Gratia Brooks knew she didn’t score a point in the first half. That changed in the second half.

The Waubonsie Valley junior forward scored all 15 of her points after halftime to help turn away Schaumburg in a 65-50 victory Monday in the opening round of Wheaton North’s Neibch Holiday Classic.

The No. 7 and top-seeded Warriors (9-1) saw a 22-point lead in the third quarter turn into an 11-point lead when the Saxons turned up the tempo and went on a 13-2 run. Brooks scored eight points in the third quarter and finished with eight rebounds. She had three rebounds in the first half and took only one shot in the second quarter.

“I thought my teammates gave me confidence,” Brooks said. “We started playing as a team and I started scoring.”

Brooks thought rebounding was the key to bouncing back from Schaumburg’s threat. Brooks led all players in rebounding while teammate Tami Morice scored a team-high 18 points and Rachael Ross added 17 points and seven rebounds.

“[In the first half,] I was working on my defense,” Brooks said. “I thought the offense would come, and it will still come [around].”

Alyssa Saklak (six rebounds) scored a game-high 22 points — 12 in the first half — and Amanda Kelly had 12 points for the Saxons (4-9).

Waubonsie plays the host Falcons (6-6) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the quarterfinals. Schaumburg faces St. Charles East at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in the consolation quarterfinals.

The Warriors jumped out to a 45-23 lead by scoring the first eight points after halftime. Waubonsie led 37-23 at the break after taking a 17-4 lead to begin the game when the Saxons opened the contest by missing its first five shots from the floor.

In the third quarter, a Schaumburg fastbreak changed the momentum, but only for a while. Riley Williams’ rebound and layup trimmed Waubonsie’s lead to 47-36 with 47.5 seconds to go in the third quarter.

“The game plan was to get some transition points,” Schaumburg coach Ashley Berggren said. “I felt we can get the ball out and move the ball up the court. We did that, but it’s hard to sustain that for two quarters. That is something that we have to work on.”

Waubonsie pulled away with a 11-0 run in the fourth quarter.

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