Sometimes when you’re not shooting well, you have to steal a win.
That was the case for No. 5-ranked Trinity, which shot just 37 percent from the field and 43 percent from the free-throw line, but converted 16 steals into some easy transition baskets to stymie St. Ignatius 67-33 Thursday in River Forest.
Five-foot-8 junior Lauren Prochaska led Trinity (11-2, 4-1 GCAC Red) with 22 points, seven steals and four assists. Freshman Annie McKenna (11 points), Taylor Nazon (7 points, 5 rebounds) and Maura Malloy (7 rebounds) each had two steals.
Prochaska, who struggled in the Blazers loss at Loyola Saturday, ignited a 25-11 run over the first 11 minutes with a pair of three-pointers and a couple of takeaways that lead to easy baskets for her teammates.
“I personally didn’t play well Saturday, so that kind of motivated me,” she said. “I thought I didn’t play so well, so I got to come in and get a strong start here to keep the season going. You can’t go back and change the past, but you can work harder. This was a game to get back into the swing of things.”
Trinity also dominated the boards against the Wolfpack, hauling down 41 errant shots, and limiting the visitors to just nine points during the 16-minute span of the second and third quarters.
“We were talking before the game,” Prochaska said. “Last year, we had lock-down defense. Lately, our defense has been kind of regressing. So we thought we had to come out strong and play our Trinity lockdown defense. Getting some steals, getting layups really put us back in the swing of things.”
Gabby Diamond had nine points and seven rebounds and Katie Gallagher added six points and six rebounds for St. Ignatius (7-10, 0-4), which had won its last three games at the State Farm Classic in Bloomington over the holidays.
“We are getting better and doing a better job of doing the little things, but Trinity is a really, really good team and we did not play well,” St. Ignatius coach Cara Doyle said. “We’re working on doing the little things…coming to passes, squaring to the basket, wanting the ball with pressure.
“We’re working on it,” she said. “We’ll get better.”
