Andrew Closes Well to Beat Lincoln-Way North

A year ago, Andrew's girls basketball team lost all three of the games that it played against Lincoln-Way North.

So, it's understandable why T-Bolt coach Bobby Matz and his team were so excited about what happened on Tuesday. Andrew not only turned the tables on the Phoenix, it did so in Frankfort with both teams fighting to stay in the conference race.

The T-Bolts outscored North 15-9 in the final quarter to claim a 52-45 Southwest Suburban Conference Red Division win.

As a result, both Andrew (13-2, 4-1) and North (14-4, 4-1) are now one game behind Lincoln-Way West (5-0) in the league standings.

Lauren Mangin scored 14 points, while Sarah Barracca added 12 points to lead the T-Bolts, who took control with a late 11-2 run.

"They took us out three times last year," Matz said. "Obviously, they have different players and we have different players. In as much as it's a new season, there's still a nice rivalry between two really good basketball teams.

"This was a well-played basketball game. Lincoln-Way North plays really hard, they're well-coached and you can see they're disciplined. We also played really hard and the ball bounced our way a bit more at the end of the game."

Things looked good for the T-Bolts early in the final quarter after they used a 6-0 run to grab a 41-36 lead. Mangin started things with a layup late in the third quarter before Molly Franson hit two free throws and Barracca made a layup.

But the Phoenix responded with a 7-0 run of their own to grab a 43-41 advantage with 2:59 remaining. Emily Jenkins (12 points) hit two layups and a free throw while Erynn Schuh (17 points) added two free throws in that spurt.

Nicole Botich (7 points) tied things at 43-43 when she hit two free throws with 2:22 remaining.  Shannon Clark (8 points) put the T-Bolts up for good at 45-43 when she made a layup 32 seconds later.

A layup by Barracca and another free throw from Botich boosted the T-Bolt lead to 48-43 with 1:28 left.

 The T-Bolts, who also received six points from Tiana Karopulos, owned a 26-25 halftime advantage. Schuh scored North's first eight points of the second half to force a 33-33 tie midway through the third period.

But she drew her fourth foul a short time later and had to sit out for over six and a half minutes.

"We got into a little bit of foul trouble and Andrew attacked the basket well," North coach Jim Nair said. "They hit some free throws down the stretch, while we missed some free throws and that made it difficult for us.

"We have to play better defense. We let Mangin get some good looks in the first half and then we kind of slowed her down, but they attacked us off the dribble. All of the credit goes to Andrew for playing well."