Analysis: Lemont Beats the Press to Beat the Rockets

Lemont senior Annie Forzley looked more like a fullback than a point guard in the in the Class 3A Evergreen Park Regional semifinal game.

Forzley was constantly in motion, dribbling this way and that, while shrugging off the ferocious defensive play of Rich East's Shawntina Jones and doing her best to safely put the Indians in a good position to score.

The Indians jumped ahead to a 20-1 lead as Forzley didn't succumb to the pressure and found her teammates for easy scoring opportunities, especially during the first 12 minutes of action.

"We knew they would put a lot of pressure on top," Forzley said. "But we knew if we could get through it, we would have some openings to score."

Amy Skowronski, Brenna Koerner and Mykala Walton each scored a pair of baskets from the inside during the Indians' strong start. Rich East didn't give up though and kept the pressure coming, rallying late in the second quarter to carry some momentum into the second half.

"They put a lot of pressure on us and I told the kids that they had to be mentally tough," Lemont coach Bill Bozue said. "They didn't break down and I think it helped in the second half when we set a screen or two, so then they had to look over their shoulder and not be as aggressive."

Bozue also turned to Skowronski to handle the point guard duties on the press in the second half. It gave Forzley, who was grabbed, knocked down and smacked a few times, a bit of a breather, but it also allowed Skowronski to find her longtime favorite target in Koerner.

Koerner scored a game-high 18 points, and all eight of her field goals came on layups.

"I always seem to be able to link up with Brenna," Skowronski said. "I can always find her under the basket and she loves her reverse layups. That's her signature move."

Lemont beat the Rockets on a few occasions in the second half on long passes that carried over the entire press and led to wide-open layups.

"I just tried to stay calm and keep my composure," Skowronski said. "A lot of it’s mental too, so I just tried to help us beat the press and get the ball to the basket."

Skowronski found Koerner who converted her lone reverse layup of the game with 2:30 left in the third quarter. Korner followed the play with another basket a minute later and Alena Pranckevicius closed the third quarter with a basket at the buzzer to put the Indians comfortably ahead, 37-21.

"(Jones) was probably the best on-the-ball defender they had, so we had some other people bring the ball up," Bozue said. "Annie had a tough battle, but she made some nice penetration, found the backdoor cuts and actually we could've scored a few more but we didn't use the backboard."

As for Skowronski, she agreed she wasn't the most comfortable handling the ball so much, but was pleased with how the game unfolded.

"I was definitely out of my comfort zone," she said. "I'm not used to that at all and Annie did a nice job of getting the pressure off of us. I was happy that I was able to beat their pressure too."