Hinsdale Central 43, Oak Park-River Forest 35
THE SKINNY
Hinsdale Central had a rough shooting night, but OPRF struggled even more enabling the Red Devils to pull out a West Suburban Silver road victory Saturday in Oak Park. Both teams have been hit hard by injuries. Hinsdale Central (12-9, 5-3) is without senior standout Madeleine Roglich among others. The Huskies are missing three of their four leading scorers in Emily Schreck, Erin Orr and freshman standout Chardonnay Harris.
TURNING POINT
OPRF (10-15, 3-5), which trailed 29-20 early in the fourth quarter, pulled within 29-27 on a 3-pointer by Katie Mullins, forcing the Red Devils to call a timeout. Following the break, Gabrielle Rush drained back-to-back 3-pointers to put Hinsdale Central ahead 35-27 with 5 minutes, 17 seconds remaining and the Huskies never got closer than four the rest of the way.
THE STAR
Rush, a 5-foot-10 junior, scored 14 of her game-high 18 points in the second half. She also contributed four rebounds and two steals. She had missed her first five 3-point attempts before coming through in the clutch.
BY THE NUMBERS
The Huskies, who didn’t score in the first quarter while missing all 13 of their shots, finished the game 3-for-27 from 3-point range. Hinsdale Central shot just 26 percent (12-of-46) from the field, but got the job done at the free-throw line, making 13-of-17 attempts in the second half. The Red Devils also got solid contributions from Emily Wasz (seven points, five rebounds), Abby Gurka (six points, six rebounds) and freshman Paige Bareck (six points, two rebounds). Mullins came off the bench to score a team-high 13 points and seven rebounds in the loss.
QUOTABLE
“It was a hard-fought victory. We have injuries and it was a very big victory for us. It was ugly, but we struggled through it.” – Hinsdale Central coach Tom McKenna
