Girls basketball: L-P, ACC, Somonauk all win on 2nd day of Tim Humes Breakout Tournament

SOMONAUK – The six girls basketball teams entered in the Tim Humes Breakout Tournament returned to the floor Tuesday night for the second evening of action. La Salle-Peru (over Newark) and Aurora Central Catholic (over Sandwich) won for the second straight night, while Somonauk topped Plano in the night’s finale.

La Salle-Peru 53, Newark 39: The Cavaliers (2-0) jumped to a 12-4 lead midway into the first quarter, but the Norsemen battled back to hold a 16-15 advantage at the period. L-P used a key 10-0 run, finished with back-to-back steals-turned-layups by Brooklyn Ficek, in the second frame to hold a 30-23 margin at the break.

“When we made the extra pass, we were a very good team. When we didn’t make the extra pass, we were a mess,” L-P coach Hollis Vickery said. “I thought we pushed the ball in transition well and our defense was good at times, but we allowed Newark way too many second and third shots.”

Newark (1-1) closed things to six points a pair of times in the third, first on a triple by Lindsey Hatteberg at 3:32 and second on a free-throw line jumper by Kellie Snyder. However, L-P went on a 12-4 run over the next four minutes, which helped close out the win.

“We got down early, came back nicely, but got down 10 or 12 there midway into the second quarter,” Newark coach P.J. McKinney said. “We were able to cut things to six a couple of times in the second half, but just couldn’t get over the hump.

“I thought we came out tonight and hung with (L-P) and handled their pressure pretty well.”

Ficek netted a game-high 22 points, 11 in each half for L-P, while Taylor Martyn had 12 points on four 3-pointers, and Jenisis Greening eight points and six rebounds.

Newark was paced by KJ Friestad’s 12 points and seven rebounds, Snyder’s eight points, 12 rebounds (11 offensive) and four steals, Hatteberg’s seven points and six rebounds, and Taylor Kruser’s six assists.

Aurora Central Catholic 50, Sandwich 36

The Indians’ Breanna Sexton scored the game’s first points on a layup 40 seconds in, but the Chargers exploded on a 16-2 run, turning turnovers on its full-court pressure into easy baskets to close out the opening period. Sandwich closed the gap to 27-18 at halftime and still trailed 37-26 heading to the fourth.

The Indians used a 6-0 run to start the final frame, and a Claire Allen free-throw line jumper made the deficit 38-34 with 5:20 to play. But the Chargers netted the next 12 points to finish off the win to improve to 2-0.

“The start of the game we didn’t handle ACC’s pressure very well, but we finally started to wake up after that,” said Sandwich coach Randy Malloy, his squad falling to 0-2. “We started attacking them and were able to chip away. We made it a game for ourselves there being down four, but we lost our composure a couple of times down the floor, and they took advantage of it.”

Allen led Sandwich with 10 points and seven rebounds, while Breanna Sexton, Alexis Sexton and Allison Olson each posted six points. Molly Roberts also grabbed seven boards for SHS.

ACC was led by 20 game-best points from Sofia Corral.

Somonauk 39, Plano 31

In the final game of the night, the Bobcats (1-1) used 10 points from Haley McCoy and six more from Maggie Roberts to head to the intermission up 19-11.

Plano’s Mikayla Walls scored a trio of baskets in the third to help slice the disadvantage to 27-21 heading to the fourth stanza, but from there the Bobcats held the lead and made six free throws in the final minutes to sew up the win.

“We didn’t play too bad on Monday night out of the gate,” Somonauk coach Garland King said. “Tonight our defense stood tall, and the struggle for us tonight was staying patient on offense. Once we did that, things started to click for us.

We were able to take the air out of the ball with about three minutes to go, they had to foul us, and we made our free throws in the final minute or so. "

McCoy paced the Bobcats with 20 points, while Roberts scored 10.

Walls posted 13 points and 12 rebounds for Plano, with Alex Bishop grabbing 10 rebounds.

“Our offensive execution wasn’t where it needed to be tonight, and I think we actually did a better job in our first game on Monday, ” Plano coach David Lay said. “Our message at halftime was let’s win the third quarter and see where we are at. I thought we won about six minutes of it, but in the last two minutes we gave it back.”

The tournament continues Wednesday with Plano taking on Newark at 5 p.m., Somonauk and Sandwich meeting at 6:30 p.m., and L-P and Aurora Central Catholic finishing the night out starting at 8 p.m.