Maine South controlled much of Saturday’s game, but Stevenson made a run in the fourth quarter. DePaul commit Emory Klatt started to leave her imprint in the game, scoring nine of her 14 points in the quarter.
The Patriots scored more points in the fourth quarter (15) than in the entire first half (12) and cut the lead down to three. Would this be the day they got taken down? A dreaded one added to their unblemished record. Not today. Like they have every game this season, the Hawks had a response.
Senior guard Meegan Fahy drove down the middle of the court and shoveled a pass to the left corner. Senior guard Ava Blagojevich knocked down a three-pointer to put the Hawks up six. Fahy then anticipated a pass and scored on the fastbreak.
Maine South (19-0) survived in its close 44-39 win over Stevenson (14-3) on Saturday at Hinsdale Central to. Seven players scored for the Hawks. Saturday’s game was the second the two teams matched up against each other in a week. The Hawks knew that Stevenson would come out with energy against them after losing previously.
“Teams are going to be coming at us — as they should — and it’s an honor to be where we’re at,” Maine South coach Jeff Hamann said. “When we needed to make a play, there were multiple kids that were able to do that.”
Hamann is right: Maine South doesn’t beat you with a singular star. The Hawks have an egalitarian approach to offense that makes everyone on the court a threat. Sophomore guard Amelia Fernandez came off the bench for the first time in the third quarter and connected on a three-pointer.
“This team is unlike like any other team that I’ve been on at Maine South where it’s not just one person, it’s not two people, it’s all 12 of us,” said Blagojevich, who finished with six points and five rebounds off the bench.
Junior forwards Asia Kobylarczyk and Caitlin Leyden combined for 13 rebounds and had the difficult task of matching with Stevenson’s Klatt — who scored 14 points and grabbed 12 rebounds).
“She’s a special player,” Hamann said of Klatt, “and she’s just a tough matchup, and so you do what you can to make it as difficult as we can for her, and I felt that we did.”
Stevenson coach Regan Carmichael said the different looks Main South showed defensively played a role in slowing down her team’s offense.
“They’re a great team,” Carmichael said. “They gave us a couple different zone looks that made it challenging, really athletic, and we just got to make sure we’re taking care of the ball.”
Maine South (19-0) has made it to January with an unbeaten record. There have been some close calls —a one-point win over Kenwood on Dec. 8 is the closest the Hawks have been to losing — but they have emerged unscathed so far.
There’s a little more than a month left in the season, and the Hawks have yet to lose, but the team tries to ignore its undefeated record.
“Every day we just try to think about going 1-0 because if we think about it, ‘Like we need to keep the record,’ that’s when things kind of fall apart,” Blagojevich said.