Carmel completes second-half comeback to down Joliet Catholic

JOLIET – The similarities between Carmel and Joliet Catholic this year have been pretty glaring.

Both teams are extremely young, neither carries many players on the bench, and entering Wednesday night, neither had a win in the East Suburban Catholic Conference.

With the two facing off Wednesday, that last thing had to change. Unfortunately for the Angels and fortunately for the Corsairs, JCA was still seeking that first conference win at the end of the game.

In a defensive battle throughout the night, the Angels were firmly in control at the start of the contest, going up 11 points in the first quarter. They led at halftime, too, before Carmel turned things on in the second half to come away with the 47-38 win on the road.

Carmel (8-13, 1-6) had its hands full before the game even started. Head coach Ben Berg was unable to attend the game due to an illness, leading assistant Tim Bernero into manning the sideline.

It took a while for things to get rolling as the Corsairs didn’t score a point until 3:38 was left in the first quarter. They didn’t make a field goal until just over two minutes were left.

Carmel began chipping away at the lead, though, and managed to make adjustments at halftime to pull ahead and eventually close out the win.

“I think (Joliet Catholic) was doing a good job of getting where they wanted to offensively,” Bernero said. “They were beating us across the lane and getting some stuff inside. ... We challenged our kids to take that away from them and make it more difficult. We picked them up full court, got them out of order and found a patch in the second half to turn it around.”

The Corsairs didn’t have a single senior on the court Wednesday night, but they got a solid effort out of junior Josie Hartman, who finished with 16 points. Maliyah Mays (11 points) and Maron Bowes (nine points) each had solid evenings, as well.

“I think at halftime we talked about needing to come together more on the court,” Hartman said. “When things are getting tough we need to pick each other up. We came together and just communicated better.”

The game started about as poorly for the Cosairs as possible as they fell behind 12-1 before Ayo Akingbesote hit their first field goal of the game. Emma Birsa came out on fire for the Angels as she scored 10 of those 12 points.

The Corsairs did close the quarter strong, cutting the deficit to 12-7 entering the second. While Birsa and Allison Lesters continued to pace the JCA offense, pulling them ahead 20-12, the Corsairs chipped away and got the disadvantage to 20-16 entering the midway point.

Hartman and company pulled it together in the locker room and came out strong in the third. An early 3 by Mays trimmed it to 20-19 before Abigail Dulinsky and Breanna Zafra hit a pair of shots to get it back to 25-19. That was the last time Joliet Catholic would be in control, though, as Carmel went on a 9-0 run to seize momentum.

A 3 by Lesters cut it to 32-31 entering the final period, but the Angels (6-15, 0-6) could come no closer than that as the Corsairs maintained a steady lead throughout the fourth.

Credit the Corsair defense for picking it up as the game went on. Birsa finished with just 14 after those 10 early points while Lesters had 10. Dulinsky, the team’s leading scorer, was held to just two points on the evening.

“We need to keep our heads up,” coach Jim O’Brien said. “We are really young. There were a lot of positives on the defensive side for us today. ... Hats off to Carmel, they did a great job defending today.”