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PAGE 18 - PLAINDEAI.FR - WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 14. IMS Cold shooting stalls Marian, lose to Bears By Sam Natrop Shaw-Free Press Service LAKE ZURICH - The only thing colder than the weather outside Friday night was Marian Central's shooting in­ side. The Hurricanes, who because of their late start in basketball, still haven't found their collective shooting touch, saw that weakness exploited as Lake Zurich rallied with key shooting down the stretch to edge the 'Canes, 42-39, in a Northwest Suburban Conference battle in the Bears' gym. The game was won (and lost) at the free throw line as Marian hit one more field goal than did Lake Zurich (16-15), but the Bears made ll-of-20 free throws compared to 7-of-12' for the Hurricanes. Dean Murin keyed the Lake Zurich comeback as he tallied seven points in the fourth quarter, including a three-point play with 2:12 remaining to ignite the Bears. His layin and subsequent free throw pulled LZ from a 39-33 deficit and cut the lead to 39-36. The next two times down- court, he hit back-to-back 15- footers to give his team a 40-39 edge with :40 to play. Marian took a timeout to set up a last shot, but it failed and Bill Rabeor was fouled with :08 showing. Rabeor calmly made the first of two free throws (giving the Bears a 41-39 advantage) but he missed the second. Chuck Hartlieb got the rebound for Marian, but his pass was stolen and Mike Nelson hit the second of two free throws with :04 to play to ice the contest. Marian, in fact, didn't score for the final 2:24 of the game, and managed only two points (Andy Hartlieb free throws) in the last 5:55. "Our shooting percentage is still a couple of weeks off," Marian Coach Hans Rokus said. "We missed some shots that we normally would make, but we're still trying to get our legs in shape. But we have to give Lake Zurich credit. Murin hit the shots under pressure." The game started slowly and deliberately with Marian's patience offense working for good shots i against Lake Zurich's tight, 2-3 zone defense. The Bears scored the first hoop of the game at the 6:45 mark, but the next bucket didn't come until Andy Hartlieb scored off a nice pass from Chris Brown and was fouled. His free throw at the 2:07 mark gave Marian a 3-2 lead. LZ led, 8-7, at quarter's end. The second period was much the same as the first as neither team had more than a three- point advantage during the segment. Chris Brown canned two free throws early in the period to give the 'Canes an 11-8 lead, but the Bears went on a 7-2 spurt late in the period to take a 15-13 lead. LZ led, 17-15, at the intermission. The Hurricanes had their best quarter of the season in the third stanza when they tallied 16 points and limited Lake Zurich to 12 as Marian took a 31-29 lead entering the fourth quarter. Andy Hartlieb canned six points in the segment while Curt Wozny and Brown added three each. Wozny's baseline jumper gave MC a 27-25 lead and Chuck Hartlieb banked home a 10- footer to up the lead to four with 1:45 to play. The Hurricanes' started with a flurry in the fourth quarter and seemed ready to pull away until Murin's late-game Chuck Hartlieb drilled a 20-footers and Wozny kn a layup to give M, biggest lead at 37-31. countered with a la; Andy Hartlieb re-estab six-point cushion with a free tosses to score. Lady Skyhawk squad small, but experienced STAFF fHOTOMIKI IAMB AAichele Swartzloff (righl sburg Skyhawks try to stoi Thursday. King was scored 22 points. Kelly Hart of the John- mond's Tiffiny King last ry few times, as she Last year it took five games until the Johnsburg Skyhawk girls' basketball team could win a ballgame. The L&dy Skyhawks finished with* dismal 5-16 record on the season under first-year coach Nancy Fahey. This year could be totally different for Fahey's squad. Although her varsity squad only carries nine players, seven of them are returning letterwinners. One of those letterwinners was con­ sidered one of the top McHenry County players. It's a nucleus of players who so far have proved their worth, spurted out to a 2-0 record with victories over Woodstock and Richmond so far." The situation has Fahey feeling pretty good these days. "Seven returning letterwinners is a definite advantage. I feel our bench strength is stronger," Fahey said. Leading her squad will be Theresa Hauck. The senior was one of six juniors who were chosen as all-McHenry County performers last year. Four other seniors join Hauck; Michele Swartzloff, Kelly Hart, Kathy Butler and Missy Christie. Sherri Scavo and Chris May are junior returning let­ terwinners. The rest of the squad consists of two sophomores; Vicki DeBeau and Lori Oeffling. With seven girls on the squad with a year's ex­ perience with her system, Fahey is very confident. "From day one, they were familiar with the system. That helps a lot. We are now a lot further than we last year. No question about it, we have improved," said Fahey. "Our goal is for a .500 record or better, which would be quite a tur­ naround. "Our strength is definitely our defense. That is something carried over from last year. We're small, but tough. We're very aggressive. We're rather small, but aggressive." Fahey looks for Wauconda as the top team in the North­ west Suburban Conference. "They always have strong personnel come out," she said. Fahey also expects Marengo and Lake Zurich the teams to beat. "I haven't seen some of the other teams. Some of them could be tough. But of what we scouted, it will be those three. "We're going to practice to beat the best team in the league. We could knock off one of the top three. If the team puts their mind to it, they could do it. Nobody expects us to beat them because of last year. We will be a definite surprise." cores Hauck, but Johnsburg wins Marengo sinks Hawks * despite Preston's 19 MARENGO -- It's amazing what a couple of weeks of practice will do for a player. Jeff Preston was one of five returning letterwinners for the Johnsburg Skyhawk basketball team this season. But he, along with 6-foot-4 Tom Meehan, couldn't get past the trainer's room when practice began for the upcoming season. Meehan suffered a broken leg in a car accident, while Preston was nursing a knee injury. Two weeks ago, the 6-foot-3 Preston was able to practice, but progress was slow for the senior. But it seems two full weeks of practice was what the doctor ordered. Although in a losing cause, Preston scored 19 points and pulled down 12 rebounds against the Marengo Indians last Friday night. The Skyhawks ended up losing the contest, 58-49. The positive side of the loss for Johnsburg coach Ben Beck was the play of Preston. "Jeff led us offensively. He's getting there," said Beck on Preton's progress. "This is now his second complete week of practice. Being one of our returning starters, we look for him for those kind of things." Again, Beck blamed a big part of the defeat to "the inability to get the ball in the hoop from the free throw line." The Skyhawks only made seven of 21 free throws. Meanwhile, Marengo hit on 16 free throws out of 21 at­ tempts. The difference is nine points, the margin of the Johnsburg defeat. "We held them to three field goals (towards the end of the game), but they hit the free throws when they needed too. We lost it at the line," said Beck on Marengo. Another crucial point of the game, according to Beck, was the loss of Greg Sobiesk and Joe Majercik towards the end of the game to fouls. Johnsburg took a 16-14 lead after one quarter, but went into halftime down 31-27. The Indians outscored Johnsburg 27-22 in the second half to put the game away. Paul Williams led Marengo in scoring with 19, while Cole Samuelson finished with 12. Jeff Jayko and Mike Mazrin scored nine each for Johnsburg. By Mike Lamb JOHNSBURG - When the all- McHenry County class A girls' basketball team was chosen last year, unlike most all-area player lists, half of the players were juniors. That meant six of the top 12 players in the County last year in class A will be competing against each other again this season. Tftat also means whenever two of those six players hit the floor on a particular night, it will probably present a heck of a show. Last Thursday night was no exception to the rule, as two of those chosen players faced each other. The Richmond-Burton and Johnsburg contest featured the matchup of the Rockets Tiffiny King and the Skyhawks Theresa Hauck. Although King won out on point scoring over Hauck, Johnsburg won out on the final score, 44-42. King hit on nine field goals and four free throws for 22 points on the night, while Hauck hit on five field goals and five free throws for 15 points. After the game, both coaches had praise for the other teams top performer. "Theresa Hauck has the finest shot I have ever seen," said Scott Brunswick, coach of the Rockets. Brunswick was im­ pressed with Hauck's outside shooting. "She definitely a strong player," said Johnsburg coach Nancy Fahey on King. "We knew that from last year. You can't take anything away from her." At the same time, Fahey was impressed with Hauck's play. "She takes her shot. She has been working hard. She has her heart set on having a good year. Tonight, you saw the outcome of that hard work." Both players came on strong in the second half. King scored 14 of her 22 points in the second half, while Hauck scored eight. Hauck had to come on strong in the second half to spark her team. After battling the Skyhawks to ties at 8 and 10, the Rockets broke out to a 23-15 halftime lead. Richmond held onto the lead for most of the third quarter as well. But Chris May's basket with four seconds left in the quarter cut the Richmond lead to 32-28. Right from the beginning of the fourth quarter, Johnsburg went to work lit latching up with Richmond. > Hauck hit on a basket and hit on two free throws to narrow the Richmond lead to 34-32. The game was tied when May hit on a breakaway layup. She was fouled in the process and hit on two free throws to give Johnsburg the lead at 36-34. The referee had ruled the foul was made after the shot and gave May two shots on the charity stripe. "I'm pleased with the comeback," said Fahey. "We were down by eight at the end of the third quarter and we cut it in half at the end of the quarter. I thought that was a key point in the game." After Richmond tied it at 36- 36, Hauck hit on two straight jump shots to give the Skyhawks a four point lead. Richmond had to call a timeout with 3:21 left in the game to re-group. The Johnsburg lead was ex­ panded to 42-36 on a jump shot by Kathy Butler. Richmond, Apyfiyer. came right back on a baskets by King and Nancy Weber with 1:37 left in the game. The clincher for Johnsburg was a rebound-shot by Kelly Hart with 24 seconds left in the game to give the Skyhawks a 44-40 lead. King hit on a basket with eight seconds left to finish the scoring. "I thought we missed some shots we should have put in," said Brunswick on the .final quarter collapse. "I thought the girls played a real good game. We're a young team. We're going to get better and better." Other top scores besides King and Hauck were May of John­ sburg with 13 and Michele Kilday of Richmond with seven. Marian wrestlers 9th, Johnsburg 10th at St. Francis A 16-team wrestling tour­ nament can be grueling with success very hard to obtain, but coaches Mike Garvey of Marian Central and Mike Roberts of Johnsburg believe in that kind of competition, even though the results are not appealing on the sport pages. Marian finished ninth and Johnsburg 10th in the St. Francis Spartan Invitational last Saturday. Sandwich won the team title with 215 vi points, while Valley Lutheran was second with 184. Lisle was third with 164, Montini 140, St. Francis 133, Lemont 86vfe, St. Edward 81, Lake Zurich 65 Vi, Marian 64 Vi, Johnsburg 48 Walther Lutheran 46, Wheaton-Christain 33 vi, Timothy Christian 33 %, St. Benedict 27%, Richmond- Burton 27 and Geneva 25. Mark Wohnrade won the 105- pound title with for Marian, while Steve Stilling (138) took Yourth and Tony Piwowarczyk (HWT) took a third. Johnsburg had only two place finishers. John Grenman at heavyweight took a fourth, while Jim Bentz was sixth at 185-pounds. "I'm a little disappointed," said Roberts. "I'm disappointed they (Johnsburg) didn't wrestle as well as I felt they could. At the same time, it's an awful tough tournament." Garvey wasn't as disap­ pointed. "It was a 16-team tournament, so it's (ninth place) better than it looks. We beat seven other teams. With four freshmen on the team, I'm not disappointed at all. I was pleased." Wohnrade pinned Dan Siewerth of Lake Zurich in the 105-pound title match. In getting to the title match, Wohnrade received a bye in the first round, while pinning Joe Kate of St. Francis and defeating Brian Thelan of St. Edward 10-5. NO TIME FOR COOKING DURING THE BUSY HOLIDAY SEASON? TRY BEEF VILLA'S HEARTY B-B-QUE PORK RIBS! 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