Hanger leads Belleville West past Mater Dei

On a night when the layups refused to drop, the Belleville West Maroons turned to their long-range attack as a way to shoot down the Mater Dei Knights.

Senior Erika Harvey and sophomore Kaylee Hanger combined for five 3-point baskets and 21 points on Wednesday as West rallied from a third quarter deficit to defeat Mater Dei 38-32 in a nonconference game.

Mater Dei, getting eight points from sophomore Myah Beckman and six third quarter points from junior Logan Braundmeier, built a 24-17 lead early in the third quarter over the cold-shooting Maroons, who despite getting wide open looks at the basket failed to convert.

West missed layups in the first three quarters including three by freshman guard Chamya Darough.

But when Harvey hit a pair of 3-point shots midway through the third quarter, West (3-2) was back in business.

“For some reason we’ve come out early in games and been a little sluggish and we’re not finishing well on our layups. But we still found a way to get the win. Anytime you can beat Mater Dei its a big win,” West coach Seth Garrett said. “We’ve still got a lot of work to, but we also did some good things out there tonight. It was a good effort.”

KEY SEQUENCE

Harvey’s back-to-back 3-point shots — the second coming with just under two minutes left in the third quarter — brought West back to within 27-24. And, when Hanger, playing just the fifth game of her high school career, canned a 3-point jumper, the game was tied at 28 heading into the fourth quarter.

Darough, who along with Hanger added 10 points for West, started the fourth quarter with a long 3-point basket to give West the lead for good.

Mater Dei, which went five minutes without scoring in the fourth quarter, would get no closer then two points the rest of the night.

“We’re young and we’re basically starting over, but we’re not using that for an excuse,” Mater Dei coach Dave Kohnen said. “We did a lot of good things out there tonight.

“We moved the basketball, rebounded well at times and executed pretty well on both end of the floor. We’ll keep working and we will get there.”

KEY PLAYERS

Braundmeier led Mater Dei with 12 points, while Beckmann added 10. Harvey and Darough combined for 21 points but it was the play of the 5-8 Hanger who seemed to ignite the Maroons sluggish offense.

‘She (Hanger) didn’t play last year. She played volleyball,” Garrett said. “I thought she came in tonight and played with a lot of poise. She hit a big 3-point shot for us and made free throws for us late to extend the lead. She did a good job.”

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 10:46 PM with the headline "Hanger leads Belleville West past Mater Dei."