L-Way West Girls Top Stagg, Push Record to 8-1

Sam Villa foiled the Stagg plan in its tracks.

The Lincoln-Way West senior forward, with the Chargers opening their Southwest Suburban Red girls basketball game in a box-in-one against sharpshooter Kaitlyn Ray, single-handedly outscored Stagg in the opening half.

With its 51-35 victory in New Lenox behind the Villa game-high performance of 20 points and eight rebounds, the Warriors improved to 8-1 overall and 3-0 in league play while extending the Chargers' season-opening losing streak to eight games.

Villa, a one-time transfer from Lincoln-Way East, converted all seven of her field-goal attempts and all three free throws in scoring 17 first-half points.

West held a commanding 35-15 lead at the break.

"We had a feeling they were going to do that (defense), and we told her that she was going to have to deliver," Lincoln-Way West coach Ryan White said.

Villa did just that, finishing all of her point-blank attempts as the Warriors' half-court offense was equally efficient.

"I don't have the height (to dominate), so I have to use what I have," Villa said. "It was all-out hustle. We knew we had to get them out of that (box-and-one on Ray)."

After a putback three seconds before the first-quarter buzzer, Villa spearheaded the Warriors' second-quarter outburst. West outscored Stagg 25-5 in the run.

"We were trying to stop Kaitlin Ray," Stagg coach Bill Turner said. "She was their leading point scorer. You're going to have to leave other people open."

West forced Stagg (0-8, 0-4) into missing 15 of its 22 shot attempts from the floor, and the Warriors' triumvirate of Sara Losacco, Jessica McDonald and Ray augmented the Villa first-half showpiece with 18 combined points.

Ray managed to find the range from beyond the arc twice before the intermission. Losacco and McDonald also added six points apiece in the first half.

"Thirty-five points for us is a lot in one half," White said. "Offensively, that's probably the best I have seen from us."

When Villa finally missed midway through the third, the senior promptly rebounded her own miss and converted a three-point play.

"That was very exciting," she said.

The Warriors were plagued by turnovers after the break, but the defensive intensity remained.

Stagg would rally late in the fourth behind the outside wizardry of Bridget Adams, but not before being limited to five points again in the third quarter.

"We were kind of running around in circles (in the middle portion of the game)," said Adams, who led Stagg with 13 points courtesy of three 3-pointers. "In the second half, we got our screens going and kind of came back."

Andrea Beric added nine points for the Chargers.
"To their credit, they played it all the way through," White said.