Look no further than the third quarter to see why the St. Charles West girls basketball team won its season-opener Wednesday evening against St. Charles High.
Through two quarters of play, the Warriors were merely treading water and found themselves trailing the Pirates 19-18.
But St. Charles West wasted little time taking charge after halftime. The Warriors outscored the Pirates 28-12 in the third quarter and won their annual Thanksgiving Eve opener against St. Charles, 55-45 at Lindenwood University.
"That spurt in the third quarter was the difference in the game," St. Charles West coach Ellen Parker said. "I don't know what kind of run we went on...but everybody chipped in and we were intense. If we can come up with three or four of those little spurts every game, that will be our goal."
The spurt began 2 1/2 minutes after halftime when 5-foot-11 forward Aisha Buxcel hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 23-23. Fellow senior Blake French followed suit with back-to-back layups off consecutive steals, giving St. Charles West a seven-point swing in a 24-second span.
St. Charles coach Ben Owens called timeout to regroup, and the Pirates answered with a layup from Ashley Sudbrock.
But the Warriors scored the next nine points to complete a 16-2 run and led 46-31 entering the fourth quarter. From there they coasted to victory, scoring their nine fourth-quarter points via free throws.
French and Buxcel combined for 27 points, including 14 points in the third quarter, and juniors Sarah Berjer and Taylor Andrzejewski combined for 18 points off the bench for the Warriors (1-0).
"I was very nervous at the beginning but I knew our team could pull through," said French, who netted a game-high 15 points. "The third quarter we came out strong, forced turnovers and pulled away. Berjer hit a couple key 3s and Taylor Andrzejewski played really well in her first varsity game. We all worked together and we all were a threat."
St. Charles West has won five straight meetings with St. Charles and seven of its last eight. St. Charles (0-1) will host the next meeting between the cross-town rivals on Feb. 4 with conference implications at stake.
Senior forward Tasha Hamm led the Pirates with 11 points.
"Against St. Charles West you can't take a minute off," Owens said. "They'll battle all 32 minutes, and if we only play 27 or 28 good minutes, they'll beat us every time. They're a good team and pose some matchup problems for us, but there was a five-minute stretch where we didn't shoot or rebound very well. We'll get better."
