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Maine East defense does its job against Leyden
Park Ridge, 01/19/13--Leyden's Victoria Galizia tries to pass to an open teammate as Maine East's Elanta Slowek and Janelle Alba Garner defend. Maine East High School hosted Leyden High School in girls basketball Saturday afternoon. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: January 19, 2013 6:07PM
PARK RIDGE — Maine East wasted no time imposing its will on both sides of the ball Saturday afternoon against Leyden, forcing eight first quarter turnovers and building an early double-digit lead that lasted most of the game.
The Blue Demons held on to collect the victory on their home court, 47-40.
“We did a good job running the ball on offense and playing good defense and we were making good plays,” Blue Demons coach Karol Hanusiak said.
The Blue Demons (8-11) were able to pick apart the Eagles’ man-to-man defense early and often, creating easy baskets for junior forward Shaylee Sloan and junior forward Maria Protic in the first half. The Blue Demons led by as much as 16 early in the third.
The Eagles (4-15) recovered from their dismal first quarter and whittled down the Blue Demons’ lead to 45-40 with less than 30 seconds remaining. Blue Demons guard Janelle Alba Garner iced the game with a pair of free throws, capping a 5-of-7 performance from the line in the fourth.
“We’ve been improving from the line all season and luckily for us they put our best free-throw shooter at the line when it counted,” Hanusiak said.
Protic and Sloan shared scoring honors for the Blue Demons with 10 points. Garner finished with nine.
Eagles senior forward Justyna Chojnowski led all scorers with 11 points and eight rebounds.
“Our intensity picked up as the game went on,” Eagles coach Drewann Pancratz said. “And we made some very good plays, but we also made too many mental mistakes.”
Maine East 47, Leyden 40
Leyden (4-15)
Chavarria 4 0-2 8, Gallzia 3 2-2 8, Vazquez 2 1-2 5, Chojnowski 5 1-2 11, Urbaniak 2 0-0 5, McCluskey 1 1-2 3. Totals 17 5-10 40.
Maine East (8-11)
Slowek 4 0-0 8, Garner 1 5-7 7, Gonzalez 2 0-0 4, Protic 5 0-0 10, Sloan 5 0-2 10, Reddy 1 1-2 3, Younan 1 0-0 2, Matej 1 1-2 3. Totals 20 7-13 47.
3-point field goals: Leyden 1 (Urbaniak); Maine East 0.
