Manteno tops Wilmington 27-17 in defensive ICE slugfest

MANTENO – With almost all of the core back from last year’s historic season, the Manteno girls basketball team expected to continue to build off its prior success. And through four games, it’s doing just that.

Despite a rough shooting night from the field, the Panthers buckled down in their 2-3 zone in Thursday’s home Illinois Central Eight Conference showdown with Wilmington, earning a 27-17 win.

The Panthers improved to 4-0 for the first time in head coach Bethany Stritar’s eight-year tenure and 2-0 in the ICE. Wilmington (5-2, 1-1) snapped a five-game winning streak.

It was Manteno’s second time in as many games holding opponents to 17 points after Wednesday’s 44-17 win over Gardner-South Wilmington, and the Panthers have now averaged just 25 points allowed per game during their 4-0 start.

“I think mostly what we’ve done really well is our defense,” Stritar said. “We keep teams from scoring a lot of points, and especially on nights like tonight, where we shoot [17%] from the field, that’s gonna help us win games.”

Despite their own 9-for-53 night from the field and 13 turnovers, the Panthers forced 14 Wilmington turnovers and held the Wildcats to 4-for-31 (13%) shooting. Wilmington coach Eric Dillon said a common theme over the team’s winning streak was missing Thursday: the ability to figure out a zone look.

“Aside from tonight, I felt like we really started to do a good job in that five-game win streak of really trying to figure out how to break down a zone,” Dillon said. “For whatever reason, I don’t know if it was just a conference rival [issue], but we played a little bit out of our element.

“We tried to do a little bit too much, both as a team and as individuals, and that kind of got us out of some of the things we were doing successfully.”

The Wildcats held a 3-2 lead after Taylor Stefancic hit a 3-pointer 90 seconds in, but the Panthers countered with back-to-back triples from Alysssa Singleton and Lila Prindeville to spark a 10-0 run to end the first quarter.

Prindeville hit three 3-pointers and scored a game-high 11 points. Seeing an expanded role this year as the team’s point guard, Prindeville said she knows she has to be willing to let it fly when open shots come her way.

“I got told last year I’ve got to shoot the ball,” Prindeville said. “But coming in this year as a junior, having to take that [starting point guard] role, I know it’s a lot more.”

With 5-foot-11 sophomore center Maddie Gesky demanding at least two Wilmington defenders most of the night, there was room on the perimeter for Prindeville and the rest of the Panthers to get open looks. Although they went just 4 for 20 (20%) from downtown, Stritar largely liked the open looks her shooters got.

“We were mindful of that in the pregame – [Gesky’s] going to get doubled, so looking opposites, talking to the guards about relocating and making themselves available,” Stritar said. “The first half, they did that very well and got very good shots up, they just didn’t fall.”

With their shots not falling, the Panthers kept their foot on the gas defensively, taking a 20-9 lead to the locker room and a 27-10 lead through three quarters. The Wildcats were able to cut the final score to just 10 thanks to an aggressive offensive effort that sent them to the free-throw line 10 times in the fourth, where they went 7-for-10.