Lily Fisher shows she’s ‘one of the best players in the state’ as Libertyville knocks off Maine South

The fourth quarter belonged to Libertyville junior guard Lily Fisher.

Spanning back to the third quarter, Maine South had started to gain traction against the Wildcats. The Hawks were on a 5-0 run when Fisher calmly dribbled down the court, got around her defender and drilled a pull-up three-pointer.

After getting a defensive stop, Fisher then assisted on junior forward Elle Knight’s basket to swing momentum back in Libertyville’s favor. Fisher finished with 10 points in the quarter and was huge in Libertyville’s 59-49 win over Maine South.

“She’s definitely the best player in Lake County,” coach Greg Pederson said. “And I think she’s shown, as we move around a little bit, that she’s one of the best players in the state.”

Fisher finished with 23 points and 14 rebounds. Libertyville (22-5) ran a lot of its offense through Fisher. Whenever she has the ball, the defense is loaded up to take her out of a rhythm. But she’s difficult to guard because of her patience, improved shooting ability and passing vision. She dissected Maine South’s defense out of the pick-and-roll, regularly finding her teammates for baskets.

At 6-1, Fisher is a physical guard. She relished getting into the paint to finish through contact. When Maine South cut the lead to four in the fourth quarter, Fisher drove to the basket and absorbed contact to get to the line.

Though she scored just five points in the second quarter, Fisher’s impact was profoundly felt in the second quarter. She was critical in finding her teammates for open shots and layups. Knight is adept at setting screens, and Libertyville has made it an emphasis to surround Fisher with shooters to open up driving lanes or make teams pay for loading up on her drives.

“Lily gets me open a lot,” said senior guard Ella Pawelczy, who scored 11 points and knocked down three threes. “That’s like the biggest aspect of my game.”

Pawelczy hit two big threes in the third quarter when Maine South was mounting a comeback to keep them at bay. For Pawelczy, Saturday’s win showed the growth that Libertyville has undergone over the course of the season. In an earlier matchup against Maine South, Libertyville lost 46-28 — Fisher said that they got “whooped.” Pawelczy said that the team was focused coming into today’s game and wanted to start the game strong. As the senior leader, she sets the tone.

“She’s our team leader,” Pederson said. “She’s had days where she’s missed her first three and we tell her. ‘Keep shooting,’ and she has no problem taking that request because she’ll keep shooting. She played like a senior today.”

Knight finished with eight points and eight rebounds. Freshman guard Addie Casey finished with four points and five rebounds. Limiting Maine South to one shot on each possession was vital.

“We struggle with [rebounding], and they like to get second-chance points a lot, so I feel like we got them off the boards and that caused us to get more possessions,” Fisher said.

The Wildcats have three games remaining in the regular season, two of which are against formidable teams in Glenbrook South and Carmel. Saturday’s win was a validation of the growth they’ve shown this season.

“We’re gonna have so much confidence going into the playoffs,” Pawelczy said. “We’re excited with our seed for sectionals, and we’re excited. This win is going to be so important for us, especially for some girls who are newer to the team and to the playoffs.”