Girls basketball: Marengo tops Johnsburg to earn share of KRC championship

MARENGO – After a cold third quarter of shooting, Marengo found an unlikely source of points in the fourth quarter against Johnsburg.

Sophomore Gabby Gieseke came off the bench and immediately provided the Indians with two big buckets, first a layup and then a 3-pointer.

Gieseke scored eight points, all in the final five minutes, as Marengo held off a Johnsburg rally for a 49-40 win Tuesday to capture at least a share of the Kishwaukee River Conference championship with two games remaining.

The Indians (16-9, 8-0 KRC) can win the title outright with a win in either of their final two games against Woodstock or Harvard. The Skyhawks (13-14, 6-2) fell two games back with the loss.

“[Point guard] Addie [Johnson] told me to go in and get some buckets,” said Gieseke, who didn’t play in the first three quarters. “It’s good to have my teammates rally around me and hype me up. I played in the JV game earlier and I really wasn’t feeling it today.

“Then I just got in, they left me open, and I said, ‘Why not?’ ”

Leading 30-13 at halftime, the Indians made only 2 of 8 shots in the third quarter and were outscored 11-4. Johnsburg’s Sophie Person started the fourth with a bucket inside, and Payton Toussaint made a free throw to cut the lead to 34-27.

That’s when Gieseke came off the bench and gave the Indians some much needed life with a layup on her first touch of of the game. Johnson then made a key steal and scored to push the lead to 38-27 with 5:16 left. Less than 20 seconds later, Gieseke drilled a 3 from the left wing.

“She’s such a phenomenal athlete,” Marengo coach Elisa Hanson said of Gieseke. “She’s a great defender. She’s a great shooter – a streaky shooter. Just being a sophomore, she’s still trying to find her consistency, but I can definitely count on her when we need a spark.

“She definitely showed that tonight. It was huge.”

Marengo made 7 of 13 shots in the first quarter and jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead five minutes into the game.

The Indians had a balanced scoring effort, with Michaela Almeida and Dayna Carr (six rebounds, four blocks) both scoring nine points. Gieseke and Keatyn Velasquez each had eight points, with Velasquez scoring all of hers in the first quarter.

Senior point guard Addie Johnson led the Indians with 11 points and had a big defensive game with five steals.

The Indians had their streak of three straight KRC championships snapped last season, so Tuesday’s win felt extra special.

“We’ve been working really hard for it, so it definitely feels good to come out on top again,” Johnson said. “We knew we needed to keep pushing. [Gieseke] coming in for that little amount of time she did and getting those buckets was really big for us. I think that’s a big confidence boost for the rest of the year, too.”

Johnsburg was led by Person with 12 points and six rebounds. Toussaint had seven points and two 3s, and Wynne Oeffling had nine points, five rebounds and two blocks.

The slow start set the Skyhawks back, but coach Erin Stochl saw the fight she wanted from them in the second half. Johnsburg last won a conference title in 2017.

“It was a slow start by us, but I really was proud of our girls’ effort in the second half,” Stochl said. “You can tell they were trying to drive and be more aggressive. When you come and play Marengo, you really want to focus on [junior] Bella [Frohling] quite a bit. We were trying to take her out of the game as best we could.

“Marengo is a tough team, but I hope we use this loss as an opportunity to learn. We have postseason games coming up still. We’re going to remember this and use it as motivation.”