Edison pulls away late for first win

MILAN — At the start of Saturday's second half, Edison head coach Ryan Kurt left four of his starters on the bench. He didn't feel that the "intensity and energy" had been there in the first half. "It made us all realize that he will sit us if we don't perform," Edison point guard Kalli Quillen said. A bench unit provided a bit of a spark for three minutes before Kurt went back to his starting five, and soon after, the Chargers were on their way to their first victory. "We went with some other girls, and they brought a little intensity and hopefully the message was sent," Kurt said. "They played a lot better in that third and fourth quarter." Edison (1-2) pulled away from St. Mary Central Catholic (0-3) on Saturday morning to win, 57-39. The game was back and forth most of the way before the Chargers' full-court pressure proved too much for the Panthers in a 25-6 finishing run. Kalli Quillen led Edison with 21 points and five steals. Lindsay Roberts, Isabella Sanabria and Jorja Byington all chipped in with 11 points. "It feels very good," Kurt said of the first win. "It was much needed." St. Mary Central Catholic sophomore Natalie Peugeot scored 19 points for the Panthers, and point guard Brittan Kromer added seven points and nine assists. "(Kromer's) just really quick," Kurt said. "She did a great job. I give that kid a lot of credit." Edison's early scoring came off of well-designed plays. Quillen dribbled off a screen right before finding Roberts cutting down the lane for a lay-in. Then Quillen came off an Ivy Kluding back screen for a finish of her own. And on a baseline out of bounds moments later, Quillen threw the ball in before circling around an Avery Rutherford screen and receiving a dish from Kluding for another make inside. "We did a nice job of executing with spacing and timing, set some good screens, got some girls open," Kurt said. "Lindsay Roberts set some really nice screens, and Avery Rutherford set some good screens that got our girls open for easy looks." St. Mary Central Catholic took a lead to halftime, though, thanks in large part to the play of Kromer and Peugeot. Kromer was the leader in helping the Panthers break through Edison's three-quarter court zone press. Kromer only made one bucket in the first half, a floater off glass, but she contributed to 18 of SMCC's 23 points thanks to seven assists. Four of those were to Peugeot — for a right-wing jumper, a fastbreak layup over the top and two left wing 3-pointers. "(Kromer is) a good ball handler," Quillen said. "She definitely put a hurting on us in the first half." Edison's response to Kromer's play wasn't to lighten up the press, though. Instead, the Chargers applied even higher pressure, frequently out of a man press rather than the zone. "We just realized that if we get up and pressure them, we'd get a lot of turnovers and score a lot more," Quillen said. "We were just playing too timid in the first half." It took a little while to fully take effect, but even with just a bit more ball pressure, Edison took a 32-29 lead to the fourth quarter. The Chargers took the lead with a Sanabria and-1 and a Roberts putback, and Roberts punctuated the quarter with a blocked shot at the buzzer. SMCC scored the first four points of the fourth on two Kromer free throws and a Peugeot make, but Edison's pressure just became too much at that point. The Chargers scored 25 of the game's final 31 points. Quillen tallied 10 of those. Byington added eight in the run, finishing four separate times on the interior with her right hand. "(Byington and Sanabria) played really well, especially Jorja since she's a freshman and it's her first time experiencing all this," Quillen said. Quillen scored the game's final two buckets, first on a strong drive to her right and then on an offensive rebound with only a few seconds remaining. Her 10 made field goals (and a foul shot) were encouraging for Kurt, who said before the season he hoped Quillen would shoot more. "Kalli's capable of doing that night in and night out," Kurt said. "She's just got to realize what it takes to play at this level and to dominate at this level. I think she's got the potential to do it. She just needs to have some confidence in herself and go out there and play." It all added up to Edison's first victory of the season. The Chargers are still a young team with lots to learn, and there will likely be some more growing pains. But now they've proven to themselves that they can turn a close game into a convincing win. "It'll give us good momentum moving forward, and it really helped us come together more," Quillen said. "Especially the second half, we all connected really well. We were celebrating for each other. It was just a good overall feeling." --- ST. MARY CENTRAL CATHOLIC Brittan Kromer 2 3-4 7, Sophia Swain 0 1-2 1, Veronica London 3 0-0 6, Rylee Whelan 1 0-2 2, Natalie Peugeot 6 5-6 19, Amanda Mills 2 0-0 4. TOTALS 14 9-14 39 EDISON Kalli Quillen 10 1-2 21, Lindsay Roberts 5 1-2 11, Ivy Kluding 1 1-5 3, Isabella Sanabria 4 3-5 11, Jorja Byington 5 1-2 11. TOTALS 25 7-16 57 SMCC 13 10 6 10 — 39Edison 14 5 13 25 — 57 Three-point goals — SMCC 2 (Peugeot 2); Edison 0