Girls basketball: Coal City uses big second half to top Wilmington

BRAIDWOOD — It was a tale of two halves Monday night for the Coal City girls basketball team in its opener against Wilmington in the Lady Comet Tournament.

Wilmington outscored the Lady Coalers 21-14 in the first half, but Coal City answered by outscoring Wilmington 28-8 after halftime to secure a 42-29 victory.

Molly Stiles led Coal City (1-0) with 14 points and seven rebounds, while teammates Audrey Cooper and Abby Gagliardo each scored seven points. Cooper also had seven steals, while Gagliardo had three.

Morris 42, Manteno 33: At the Reed-Custer Tournament, Morris opened its season with a win as Addison Stacy and Makenna Boyle each scored 12 points and Maddy Shannon added 10.

Newark 33, Sandwich 32 (OT): At the Somonauk Tournament, K.J. Friestad led Newark (1-0) with 11 points and four rebounds, while Kellie Snyder had seven points and five steals to go with a team-high 16 rebounds. Lindsey Hatteberg added five points and four steals. 

Herscher 43, Seneca 35: At Seneca, after the Lady Irish went ahead 2-0 on a putback by Emma Smith, the Tigers poured in 16 of the next 18 points, a majority of them off turnovers. Thirteen Seneca turnovers led to 12 of those points, with Macey Moore stealing and laying the ball in four times as Herscher went up 16-4. Moore finished with a game-best 19 points.

Seneca righted the ship with intense defense, forcing seven miscues to climb back within 22-17 early in the third quarter and 11 turnovers in that period to get within 33-28 early in the fourth.

Kennedy Hartwig, who had nine of her 11 points in the fourth, nailed a trey with 3:24 left in that quarter to cut the deficit to 37-33, but three points from Hailey King and another deuce from Moore upped it back to nine.

Smith finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Irish.