Oak Forest 'D' Denies Oak Lawn

Colleen Emmett scored 16 of her 20 points in the second half of Oak Forest's 63-31 girls basketball victory over Oak Lawn on Tuesday night.

The Bengals (6-2, 2-0) forced 34 turnovers and used a dominating defense to deny Oak Lawn opportunities.

Katie Swanson scored 14 points for Oak Forest. Lynn Nagel added 12 points and nine rebounds. Colleen Shorewood had eight points and nine rebounds.

The Spartans were led by Kelly Foley's 16 points and Nicole Paplauski's 10. Sophomore fill-in Jill Steigerwald came up to the varsity level for the ailing Bridget Niemiec. Steigerwald scored four points and grabbed seven rebounds.

Oak Lawn finished with a 31-30 edge on the boards.

"We stepped it up in the second half because of that slow start," Emmett said. "We came down a bit, but the three-pointers helped us get back up."

In the first quarter, both teams struggled, but Oak Forest hit a string of 3-point field goals to pull to 16-12 lead. At the half, the Bengals went into the locker room with a 28-18 lead, forcing a total of 21 Spartan turnovers.

In the second half, Emmet and the Bengals found a second wind that was just too much for Oak Lawn. In the third quarter, Oak Forest pulled ahead 45-31, but Foley capped off the quarter for the Spartans with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

But, even that wasn't enough to shift the momentum. Oak Forest dominated the fourth quarter, holding the Spartans to 10 points to bring the final to 63-41.

"We've been stressing rebounding in practice," Oak Lawn coach Janet Haubenreiser said. "Overall, we did a good job of running down rebounds. We showed spurts where we looked like a good team, but we turned the ball over too much. It's been a frustrating season so far, but we still believe we can turn it around."

Oak Forest coach Steve Schanz was scratching head.

"Sometimes, when you hit threes early, you get complacent, and that happened to us," he said. "Oak Lawn is a tough team and they play hard. Honestly, we didn't match their intensity real well. Everyone was a little sluggish in practice yesterday, but Emmett showed maturity by getting through it and stepping up."