Cards work offensive glass to sink Marcos

POLO – In a 46-33 win by Forreston over Polo on Tuesday, both head coaches agreed on the game’s biggest factor: An 18-3 advantage in offensive rebounds by the Cardinals.

“The most telling stat was offensive rebounds,” Polo coach Jeff Grobe said. “We were one-and-done, and we’re not even a good shooting team to begin with.”

Both teams shot an identical 33 percent from the field, but Forreston was 18-for-55, while Polo was 9-for-27.

Surprisingly, the Marcos hung with Forreston (8-7, 3-2) until Keileigh Kloepping sparked Forreston to its biggest lead of the game at 40-30. The junior guard scored off a steal at the end of the third quarter, added a 3-pointer to start the fourth, and then scored another basket for seven quick points.

“Keileigh did an excellent job for us in that stretch,” Forreston coach Tim Bukoski said.

Paige Peterson cut the lead to 40-32, but Forreston’s Kate Person (10 points) scored under the basket, and sophomore Allison Bondele, who Bukoski called a general on defense, added two more points on an offensive rebound to clinch the win.

“Offensive rebounds saved us,” Bukoski said. “We did an excellent job of crashing the boards. ”

A prime example of this was on Forreston’s first possession of the second quarter. Four shots were missed, and the Cardinals grabbed each loose ball, finally earning a trip to the free-throw line.

“We can’t give them that many chances,” Grobe said.

Polo (2-13, 1-4) only had four players score, led by junior Justine Gorzny with 15, including an impressive 8-for-9 performance from the line.

“We need more scorers,” Grobe said.

Forreston’s Abby Peterson also had 15 points, and led her team off to an 8-0 lead to start the game. However, from that point on until 5 minutes left in the game, the two teams played exactly even on the scoreboard.

“Polo did a good job of executing and running off screens,” Bukoski said. “It helped having Abby come out on fire to start the game, because we did not play as good on defense as we should have.”

Abby Peterson continued the give Polo fits in the second quarter, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to offset three straight Marco scores.

“She always kills us on 3s,” Grobe said.

In between those daggers was assist-making par excellence by Polo sophomore Rilley Peterson. First, it was a clever cross-court lob to Gorzny under the basket, followed by another delivery to Gorzny for two more points. Haley Cisketti caught the third straight assist from Peterson to keep Polo within reach.

“For a sophomore, she played pretty good,” Grobe said.

In the third quarter, Polo pulled within a possession of tying the game on two occasions, but was hurt by turnovers (27 overall) and, of course, rebounding.

“We dug too many holes and didn’t have enough in the tank at the end,” Grobe said.

Polo faces an even bigger challenge on Friday, as it goes on the road to take on league-leading AFC.