Girls Basketball: Glenbrook South’s Sara Meinecke shines in return vs Hersey

Updated: December 17, 2011 5:50PM

Glenbrook South’s Sara Meinecke had plenty of time to practice free throws while recovering from an ACL injury she suffered during soccer season. Her practice paid off Saturday.

Meinecke, making her first appearance of the season, knocked down three of four free throws during overtime and reserve guard Kelsey Byers scored when she rebounded her own miss to lift the 20th-ranked Titans (10-2) to a 38-35 victory at Hersey.

Meinecke and Byers were forced into action when Colleen McDonagh and Lindsey Oldshue fouled out in regulation and leading scorer Abby Keller went down with an ankle injury 40 seconds into the extra session.

“I was nervous,” Meinecke said. “But with my ACL tear, I had a lot of time to practice free throws in the gym so I felt pretty good that was the shot I had to take. It was lucky that I just got thrown in there because if I had time to think I would have psyched myself out.”

Glenbrook South led 24-11 when Colleen McDonagh made one of two free throws with 5:54 remaining in the third quarter. But Hersey (4-7) went on a 19-4 run over the next 12 minutes and took its first lead at 30-28 with 1:10 remaining on two free throws by Corinne Busby.

“You could kind of see when we started missing some shots and they started pecking away, we started feeling the pressure on our shots,” Glenbrook South coach Steve Weissenstein said. “In the first half and half the third quarter, we were shooting nice and free.

“But at the end when they went zone, we couldn’t buy a basket,” he added. “We had some good looks, we just couldn’t score.”

Oldshue tied the game with two free throws with 37.4 seconds left, and after Hersey missed both ends of a two-shot foul with 23.5 seconds remaining, the Titans had a chance to win with time winding down. But Molly McDonagh’s short jumper in the lane bounced off the rim.

In overtime, Meinecke split a pair of free throws and Byers rebounded her own miss to give Glenbrook South a 33-30 lead. Renee Poulos’ short jumper got Hersey within two, but Meinecke added two more free throws and Molly McDonagh split a pair with 34 seconds left to extend the lead to 36-32.

Maggie Hogen got Hersey within 36-35 with a three-pointer from the key, but Molly McDonagh scored on a breakaway and Katie Dwyer knocked the ball away from a Hersey player at the buzzer to prevent the Huskies from putting up a three-pointer to tie the game.

“The thing I loved is that we had three girls come in and win the game for us,” Weissenstein said. “I’m looking for kids who can come in and give our kids a break. I’m proud of those kids who came in off the bench.”

Keller led Glenbrook South with 13 points, Molly McDonagh added eight and Oldshue had seven. Hogen had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Jen Hall added 11 points for Hersey.

“It was a mental game,” Keller said. “Once we hit those low points in our game, it’s hard to get back up. Right at the end, we did. When they hit shot after shot after shot, it kept breaking our confidence. But our team is really solid. It was definitely a good win for us.”

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