Girls basketball: Second-half surge sends AFC past Polo

POLO – A back-and-forth first half gave way to a decisive surge by Ashton-Franklin Center on Wednesday night, and the Raiders picked up a 38-27 NUIC South road win over Polo.

AFC (12-7, 3-1 NUIC South) scored 11 straight points in the final two minutes of the first half and opening four minutes of the second half to build a 29-15 lead, and nabbed 10 steals while forcing 16 Polo turnovers in the second half to maintain its margin.

“It’s amazing for us to win on the road,” AFC junior guard Cameryn Winterland said. “We knew it was going to be tough – we haven’t won at Polo in quite a while – and we were locked in from the beginning and we really focused, and I think that really helped us. It was a really good win.”

AFC scored the first 12 points of the game, then the Marcos (7-9, 1-2) scored the next 13 to take the lead early in the second quarter.

Senior forward Brianna Gonnerman scored nine points for the Raiders in their initial run, as they held Polo without a point for the first 5:04 of the game.

“Just getting easy 2-footers at the bucket, and then stopping them on defense, that was the key,” Gonnerman said. “Creating easy shots helped us get the lead. Instead of throwing up bad shots, we found open players and took good shots.”

But the Marcos picked up their defense and found some rhythm on offense. Sophomore point guard Camrynn Jones capped a 13-0 spurt with a three-point play to end the first quarter and a 3-pointer to open the second for a 13-12 lead with 6:23 left in the opening half.

But Winterland followed with two of her three 3s for AFC, pushing the margin back to 18-13.

“Full credit to our post players for those kickouts. I wouldn’t have been able to hit those shots without them, and that was very helpful for us,” Winterland said. “I think we could’ve done a little bit better on offense, but for the amount of pressure their defense put on us, I think that we did really well, actually.”

Carlee Grobe hit a pair of free throws after being fouled while shooting a 3, and it was 18-15 with 2:34 left in the first half.

That’s when the Raiders started to roll. Gonnerman went coast to coast for a layup after a Winterland steal, then hit an elbow jumper in rhythm for a 22-15 halftime lead. After the break, AFC picked up where it left off, as Alexis Schwarz had a three-point play and a drive to the hoop, then Gonnerman went the length of the court off her own steal for a 29-15 lead with 4:38 left in the period.

“We were reading the wing passes up top, running a good defense where our wings come up and stop the passes, so then we were taking those away and getting steals,” Gonnerman said. “We were just playing hard, tough defense and boarding, and they weren’t able to compete with that.”

After taking the lead, the Marcos were outscored 17-2 over the next 12 minutes, 11 seconds, and went 9:28 without a point. Still, Madison Glawe’s two free throws with 1:05 left in the third quarter and Carlee Grobe’s basket to end the period got the Marcos within 10 (29-19) heading into the fourth.

“I think a lot of players stepped up for us. Their defense, it was tough to get shots up on them; they’re a very good team,” Jones said. “Our energy was up, the effort was there, the execution just wasn’t. We were trying our best, doing what we could, but shots weren’t really falling for us and we were turning it over too much.”

Polo’s defense kept the game within reach, and Carlee Grobe scored the first basket of the fourth to make it 29-21. Jones posted up for another basket to get the Marcos within 31-23 with 7:27 to play, and they seemed to be on the verge of another surge to put some pressure on the Raiders.

“Our main goal was to play tough defense. We knew they were going to score some baskets on us, there was no stopping that – they have a ton of good players and are well coached – but we also knew we needed to keep up our defense to win the game because we weren’t really scoring on offense,” Jones said. “The defense was definitely a strong point this game. The last two days at practice we’ve been all in, the aggressiveness has been there, pushing each other to play our best defense. The effort was definitely there tonight.”

But AFC turned up its own defense down the stretch, limiting Polo to a basket by Elsa Monaco and two free throws by Carlee Grobe over the final seven minutes to seal the win. Despite finishing the game 5 for 23 from the free-throw line – including 3 for 13 in the fourth quarter – the Raiders made enough plays on both ends to pull out the victory.

Gonnerman led the way with 16 points, eight rebounds, six steals and two assists for AFC, and Winterland added 11 points, five rebounds and two steals. Schwarz stuffed the stat sheet with seven points, eight rebounds, three steals, two assists and a block and Taylor Jahn finished with four points, three steals and two assists. Reese Polk nabbed five steals and Audree Dorn chipped in four steals for the Raiders.

Jones and Carlee Grobe each had eight points, three rebounds and an assist for Polo, with Grobe adding two steals and two blocks. Glawe finished with five points and four rebounds and Sydney Rahn chipped in four points, 13 rebounds and two blocks. While hitting 11 of their 14 free throws and forcing 13 AFC turnovers, the Marcos shot just 7 for 30 from the field and turned the ball over 33 times.

“It’s hard to win when you have more turnovers than points,” Polo coach Jason Grobe said. “The effort was there, we just turned the ball over too much and couldn’t get going on offense.”