Wheeling's comeback kids do it again
By Drake Skleba
For the second consecutive Friday night, No. 15 Wheeling rallied in the fourth quarter to pick up a huge Mid-Suburban League Eastern Division victory. Head coach Shelly Wiegle's Wildcats trailed No. 13 Elk Grove 38-25 after three quarters of play.
Wheeling (22-3, 6-2) outscored the Grenadiers 22-4 in the final eight minutes to claim a 47-42 victory at Wheeling. It was host's Senior Night and the seniors, along with a couple of sophomores, refused to lose.
The Wildcats were led by Minnesota-bound Janelle Cannon. The senior led the Wildcats with 15 points, eight of them in the final stanza. Cannon added a couple of steals during the vital fourth-quarter run. She also hauled down eight rebounds for the game.
"I guess we like to make it interesting," said Cannon. "Our defense really picked it up in the fourth quarter to force numerous turnovers. Our offense feeds off our defense and we really got on a roll.
"Tonight was Senior Night. We were not going to lose on Senior Night. We all gathered around and were determined not to lose this game."
Last week at Hersey, Wheeling's cardiac kids rallied from nine down with less than two minutes to go in the game for a 51-48 victory in Arlington Heights.
Down 13 points after three quarters of play, the Wildcats started their run a little bit earlier then when they were down 13 points last week. Cannon hit a free throw at the beginning of the fourth quarter to make the score 38-26.
A key moment happened next. Elk Grove's senior forward Ashley Capotosto (22 points, 13 rebounds) picked up her fourth foul with 7:35 left. The important call seemed to ignite the Wildcat defense. Like angry bees, the Wildcats swarmed all over the Grenadiers and created numerous turnovers. Capostos scored but one basket in the fourth quarter.
As in the game last week, senior Wildcat guard Bianca Szafarowicz (five steals) started picking pockets. She recorded four steals in the fourth quarter.
Cannon unleashed a three-point bomb from 22 feet to bring the Wildcats within seven at 38-31 with 6:43 left. Szafarowicz stole the ball and scored. After a subsequent theft, Szafarowicz fed the ball to Stephanie Kuzmanic for a basket. Another Elk Grove turnover led to a hoop from sophomore Leah Malsom (four points). The Senior Night crowd went insane as the Wildcats pulled within 38-37 with 5:34 to play in the game.
Stephanie Kuzmanic added a steal which led to Cannon's lay in with 4:12 left in regulation for a 39-38 lead. The run grew to 16-0 as Cannon scored again to make the score 41-38 with 3:20 left.
After yet another Elk Grove turnover, the Grens committed 13 in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats went into an impressive delay game.
Wheeling ran off almost two minutes before being fouled by Elk Grove. Stephanie Kuzmanic nailed two more free throws as the Wildcats' run hit 18-0 as their lead grew to 43-38
Capotosto scored at at the 1:20 mark to make the score 43-40. Cannon and Stephanie Kuzmanic each nailed a pair of free throws to post Wheeling's final score. Elk Grove's 6-foot-4 post Courtney Lindfors scored right before the buzzer to complete the scoring in this unbelievable game.
Lindfors collected 17 points and 13 rebounds for Elk Grove (19-4, 5-3). The Grenadiers led 19-13 at the half paced by 14 Capotosto points. Lindfors scored 10 third-quarter points to lead the Grenadiers to that seemingly insurmountable 38-25 lead after three quarters.
Sophomore Kelly Kuzmanic had a huge game for Wheeling scoring 12 points with five rebounds for the victorious Wildcats.
"We really want to win the conference championship," said Kelly Kuzmanic. "We really put it together in the fourth quarter and played very hard to get another come-from-behind win. I was able to hit my shots by concentrating on my follow through. By making my shots I was able to pull Lindfors away from the basket and that allowed us to drive to the basket and score."
A happy, but emotionally-drained Wiegle talked about her comeback kids.
"We certainly play inspired basketball when we have to, but we just have to figure out why we have such slow starts," she said.
"We played great defense in the fourth quarter. We were all over the floor. We hit our free throws and made our shots; just super fundamental basketball to pick up this big win."
Wheeling moves into first place by a 1/2 game over Hersey (18-6, 5-2), which plays Rolling Meadows Saturday. Wheeling closes out the season at home with Buffalo Grove on February 2, and Rolling Meadows on February 5.
Hersey plays at home versus Prospect on February 2 and wraps up its conference season at Elk Grove on February 5.
