Girls basketball: Lincoln-Way East starts own holiday tournament with 2 wins

FRANKFORT – Thursday’s final pool play games at Lincoln-Way East’s Medieval Classic Holiday Tournament took on even more significance after four teams went 2-0 on Monday, the opening day of the eight-team tournament.

While Lincoln-Way Central and Providence Catholic each went 2-0 in New Lenox, there was a little more drama on the Griffins’ court to determine if the hosts could take a 2-0 record into their game against Chicago Marshall, which also went 2-0.

After falling, 60-39, to Marshall in its opener, Minooka gave East all it could handle before the Griffins captured a 54-47 victory to follow up on an earlier 37-25 win over Andrew.

“Minooka has definitely made improvements, and they handled the basketball better, and they shot the ball really well against us and kept hanging round,” Griffins coach Jim Nair said. “We told the girls it wasn’t our best game, but they did the little things at the very end, like hitting free throws, and we were fortunate to come away with the win.”

The Knights and Celtics meet at
2 p.m. Thursday, and the Griffins play defending Class 2A champion Marshall, who's led by the state's all-time winningest coach, Dorothy Gaters, at 3:30 p.m in games to be played in Frankfort.

The winners of those final pool play games will play for the title of the 18th annual holiday tournament at 3:30 p.m. Friday at East.

East led, 33-27, at halftime, but Minooka tied it at 33 after Abby Pettigrew, who had a game-high 20 points, hit two of her six 3-point baskets. However, the Griffins responded with an 8-0 run to move back in front for good, as Andie Perch (13 points) made two free throws and a 3-pointer and Morgan Montaque (seven points) converted a three-point play.

After the Griffins took a 44-35 lead into the fourth quarter, the Indians got as close as five points before East sealed the game at the free-throw line, where they made 22 of 26 attempts during the game.

Other leaders for the Griffins were Olivia Molnar (12 points), Lilly Genis (10 points) and Samara Swire (six points).

“We look forward to playing Marshall,” Molnar said. “We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores, so I’m glad to be able to show them what varsity level is all about,” Molnar said. “But they have great experience with basketball, so they really help us out a lot. We’re able to able to look to a lot of different people. It’s nice knowing we don’t have to rely on one person.”

Top scorers for the Indians were Sophie Darden (13 points) and Brooke McNally (six points).

“They’re working as hard as they can and are improving every day,” Indians coach Jeff Easthon said. “They go to practice and get better and then go to their next game and get better. Everyone does their job, and I’m really proud of how we played today.”