L-W Central Girls Basketball Gets a Lift From Second Unit

Lincoln-Way Central’s Chris Fetherling wasn’t hard-pressed to find a silver lining in the Knights’ 45-25 girls basketball loss to Joliet West on Thursday night in New Lenox.

Fetherling was proud of the play of some of the girls he sent in off his bench in the second half.

“Our second group gave us a big boost, you know what I mean?” Fetherling said. “They played really hard. Anna Walsh and Brittany Spindler and Allie Schwab and Caley Michalak—those four. They came in and gave us a spark.

“That’s what those guys are for—they’re always ready. I credit that to the kids because it’s kids who don’t always get the most playing time. But when they’re called upon, they’re ready to go. They picked up the energy for us.

“It’s too bad we got off to such a poor start and really dug that hole.”

Lincoln-Way Central trailed 26-10 at halftime and 39-18 at the end of three quarters.

Walsh, Spindler, Schwab and Michalak helped the Knights shut out West for more than 6 minutes in the fourth quarter. Walsh, Schwab and Michalak each scored two points. Walsh also grabbed four rebounds and battled the Tigers under the boards.

Central (11-10) will need them all to keep pushing as it looks to rebound against Lockport on Tuesday (Jan. 31) and then begins to turn its attention toward postseason play in February.

“It’s always good to see your second group play hard and play well,” Fetherling said. “The thing I look at is we’ll make adjustments. This is something we can work on. We’re so close to the regional, and we’re preparing for that already.

“So, this is going to lead to some great adjustments for us, things that we can do to get better. That’s been one of the biggest differences for the girls this year—watching film and really taking care of what we can do to exploit other teams.

“But, the way we play, we can’t get behind like that. We’re not a team that can get behind by 14 points and explode offensively. That’s not the type of team we are. We handle the ball. We’ll run our stuff when we can, and we’ll get good looks.

“We play defense. I say this all the time. We pride ourselves on being a defensive team. We try to hold teams in the 30s or 40s. Our goal is usually 35. We try to hold teams down and offensively grind it out. Joliet West did a good job of taking us out of what we wanted to do, and we didn’t adjust well.”

Instead, the Knights found a silver lining. And it was their second unit that sent them home feeling better about their effort.