Girls basketball: St. Francis snaps skid, extends Sycamore’s

SYCAMORE – After losing four games in the Montini girls basketball tournament, St. Francis opened 2024 at Sycamore, facing a Spartans team that also had lost four games at the Morton tournament.

St. Francis scored nine of the first 11 points and never trailed by more than three in a 57-52 win against Sycamore on Thursday.

“I think we had a nice four-day break after four tough games where we got 20-pieced almost every game,” said St. Francis guard Lynsey Cleveland, who scored 17 and grabbed seven rebounds. “It just took us to reset and come back and really focus. We know they’re really good but we’re really good too, even though we just lost four games.”

Although St. Francis (9-8) led most of the first half, its lead never grew beyond six, while Sycamore’s only lead of more than a point was 42-39 with 6:21 left in the game after a 3-pointer by Monroe McGhee.

But Téa Rubino, who scored the first nine points for St. Francis, drained a 3 to tie it back up. St. Francis trailed 46-44 with 5:18 left after a pair of free throws by Sophia Klacik but scored the next eight, including a pair of 3s by Cleveland.

“She’s kind of a fifth, sixth man depending on the day, and today she got some points, she hit some 3s, and she got some good steals and rebounds,” St. Francis coach Jeff Gerdeman said of Cleveland. “Great effort by Lynsey. She’s unselfish, so it was good to see her get her points tonight. She’s normally an unselfish player, and tonight she stepped up.”

One of her biggest plays came in the final minute. Sycamore trailed 55-52 and kept grabbing offensive rebounds in an attempt to tie the score or at least draw within one. Lexi Carlsen, who scored a game-high 20 and had made six trips to the foul line in the game, drove toward the bucket.

Cleveland came away with the block and the rebound, setting up Natalie Doyle for a layup and a 57-52 lead with 11.2 seconds left.

“I was thinking through my mind I take a charge,” Cleveland said. “But she’s been doing this driving and then stopping and shooting it. So I was like, all right, I’ll just go for it. I just blocked it. I wasn’t expecting to block it, but it just happened.”

McGhee scored 12 and Klacik 11 for Sycamore, which has lost five straight and six out of seven heading into games Saturday against Hampshire (11-6) and Tuesday against Kaneland (13-6).

Sycamore coach Adam Wickness said his team came out flat, and that set the tone for the game.

“I thought our defensive intensity was lacking today,” Wickness said. “I thought we were way too open, not doing a very good job of squaring up people. And then offensively we never really got a rhythm where we had a good spurt.”

Wickness said his team had some good looks at the rim in the first half, but nothing was falling. Sycamore rolled out some new looks on offense, as well.

“We didn’t do them well, but we tried a couple things to try and light a spark offensively,” Wickness said. “We just have to step up and make plays on both ends of the floor. That’s the bottom line. When we’ve been playing well, people have been making plays. And when we haven’t been playing well, it seems like we kind of just rely on one person to make plays. Basketball is a team sport.”

McGhee had seven rebounds, while Carlsen was 9 for 11 from the free-throw line.

For St. Francis, Riley Austin scored 10, while Cleveland and Natalie Doyle each had seven rebounds.