Evergreen Park guard Ella Throndson refused to give in.
The 5-foot-8 junior scored 16 of her game-high 19 points in the second half in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to rally the Mustangs to victory in the championship game of the Lisle Cage Classic on Dec. 30.
“She’s a fighter,” Evergreen Park coach George Shimko said. “She just keeps playing.
“That’s the fun thing about her. No matter what is going on, she just keeps playing.”
The Mustangs came into the game riding an eight-game winning streak. But St. Edward raced out to a 22-9 lead in the first quarter and the Mustangs could not get closer than nine points after that in a 54-35 defeat.
“I feel like we took a while to take off and then in the second half we picked up a little bit,” Throndson said. “That’s definitely what cost us the game.”
Indeed, the Mustangs (11-4) shot 3 of 11 in the first quarter and Throndson was 1 for 7 in the first half, which ended with St. Edward (9-5) up 31-17.
The Green Wave, who return seven players, including three starters, from last year’s Class 1A fourth-place finisher, shot 21 of 40, with Sandi McPherson scoring 14 of her 16 points in the first half and Savannah Lynch adding 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Besides Throndson, no other Mustang scored more than Shannon Farrell’s six points.
“We kind of hesitated a little bit too much and when you hesitate in a game like that, it kind of hurts you a little bit,” Shimko said. “We weren’t shooting fast enough.
“But they’re a really good team. They defended well.”
Despite the loss, Shimko had much to be pleased about his team’s performance in the tournament, which included victories over Westmont, Timothy Christian and IC Catholic.
“I think we’re really happy with what we did and we’re moving along pretty good,” Shimko said. “Last year we were playing in seventh-place games and this year we’ve played in two championship games.
“So we’re getting there. We’ve made big strides from where we’ve been, so I’m really happy with that.”
Throndson and 5-foot-10 senior forward Tatum Harris were named to the all-tournament team. Harris was held to four points against St. Edward but averaged 18 points over the first three games.
Throndson, who had two offensive rebounds, two assists and two steals against St. Edward, is known for her 3-point shooting. She made two treys against St. Edward, but also scored on several drives.
“I feel like I did better at getting to the basket today,” Throndson said. “I feel like we’ve definitely learned each other’s skill sets and just learned to work better together.”
The loss to St. Edward won’t take any luster off of the Mustangs’ strong start.
“I think we did pretty well,” Throndson said of the tournament. “It slowed down today, but overall, we did pretty well.”