Girls Basketball: St Edward girls advance to title game at Lisle

Updated: December 30, 2011 12:00AM

On a night when coach Michelle Dawson returned to the sidelines for the first time since taking a break to give birth to son, Nathan on Dec. 21, everything fell into place for St. Edward.

The Green Wave got inside with ease against Joliet West on offense, and behind senior post player Alex Lee St. Edward dominated the boards in a 66-39 semifinal victory at the Lisle Tournament. The win earned St. Edward its first shot at this tournament crown, Friday night at 8 against Timothy Christian.

“It was our focus coming into the game to stop their penetration into the paint and own the boards and I think we did a great job of it,” said Dawson.

St. Edward (12-3) outrebounded Joliet West 49-22 and Lee, who led the way on offense with 14 points, also hauled down 14 rebounds.

“I just really worked hard to get around them and get the rebound,” said Lee. “It was good to have the height advantage, but I just got around to the ball faster than they did.”

Guard Rena Ranallo scored 12 points and had five assists, Callie Johnson 11, and Katherine Von Ahnen 10 and St. Edward’s interior dominance was evident on offense, as well, with 52 percent shooting from the field (29-of-56).

“We had so many lanes to the basket that it was something we wanted to key on tonight,” Dawson said. “It was either layups for our guards or penetrate and dish to our posts.”

In winning for the sixth straight time, the Green Wave had 11 second-chance points in the first half and 13 of its 17 field goals then came on layups.

Still, St. Edward was unable to put away the game until the third quarter after Joliet West shaved the deficit to 36-28 on a corner jumper by Vicky Orasco.

The Green Wave then went on a 12-3 run, with a few rare outside shots mixed in from Kerr on a 16-footer and Ranallo on a 12-footer to get the lead to 48-31.

“We’re a small team and if we aren’t fundamentally sound on the boards and on defense, we’re going to struggle against bigger teams,” Joliet West coach Kevin Michaels said. “We let them inside far too often tonight to have a chance to stay in the game.”

For Lee, winning the tourney championship would carry some personal meaning beyond a title.

“It means a lot to me because last year I broke my finger and wasn’t able to play in this tournament,” she said. “But this year, being a senior, it means a lot to me. I really want to go for it.”

St. Edward held Joliet West to 31 percent shooting from the floor (16-of-51), although it wasn’t necessarily the Green Wave press that caused problems like it has with other teams.

“We see plenty of good presses against teams in our conference,” Michaels said. “We just didn’t do a good job of being disciplined with the ball in the frontcourt and also with our discipline on defense. And we were just kind of sluggish out there.”

Kailey Foster led West with nine points while Aaliyah Stepney, Orasco, and Khadija Cooley had eight each.

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