Hoffman nabs 3rd at Mundelein
Third place makes the holidays better than fourth place.
Just ask Becca Stoczynski, who helped the Hoffman Estates girls basketball team hold off Cary-Grove in the second half of Thursday’s third-place game of the Mundelein Christmas tournament.
“We had an option of settling for fourth place or taking third place,” said Stoczynski, a 6-foot sophomore who recently returned to the Hawks’ lineup after missing three weeks with a pinched tendon in her thumb. “Of course, with it being so close to Christmas, this is the best present.”
It was wrapped in the form of a 52-46 triumph as Stoczynski helped seal the deal with 12 rebounds, nine in the second half when she and Mel McGinn were picking up the slack for three starters battling foul trouble.
“I was just saying run clock run,” said Hawks coach Mike Nocella about trying to hold onto the lead.
Senior Jada Stotts picked up her fourth foul with 1:21 left in the third quarter and Hoffman leading 36-32.
The Hawks (12-3), who had led 19-10 after one quarter with sophomore Destinee Young scoring 15 of those points, watched the Trojans (13-3) come back and take a 40-38 on Claire Jakubicek’s 3-point play.
But Hoffman tied it at 40 on a 14-footer by Young (game-high 23 points), then went ahead for good on a rebound layup by Stoczynski (4 points).
Stotts (11 points) came back into the game after her fourth foul and drilled a 3-pointer with 2:56 left to make it 45-40.
Buckets by Olivia Jakubicek (9 points) and Paige Lincicum (7 points) brought Cary to within 45-44.
But Stotts hit another big 3-pointer moments after Claire Jakubicek fouled out with 1:54 left.
The Hawks increased the lead to 50-44 with 2 free throws by guard Mary Pettit following a steal by Stotts.
“Everyone we got in the game contributed,” Nocella said. “Mel gave us some good outside shooting (2 big second-half buckets) and Becca made some key blocks at the end and got us rebounds. Cary-Grove is a super team. This is a nice feather in our cap.”
The Northern-Illinois bound Claire Jakubicek finished with 18 points.
Megan Straumann chipped in 11 for the Trojans, who had won 10 straight before back-to-back losses to Zion-Benton and Hoffman Estates.
“Hoffman is a good team and we told our kids they became individuals,” said Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert. “We stopped playing as a team. We didn’t play the defense we needed to. You can’t give up 15 points to one in a quarter. Obviously she’s a great player, but someone had to get a body on her.
“And when Claire fouled out, we’ve got to find out if we can play without her. We’ve been in that situation before and we’ve got to be able to play when she is not on the floor.”
Top rebounders for Hoffman after Stoczynski were Stotts (7), Young (6) and Ogunleye (5).
“If they were watching, don’t think we showed much offense to them (Cary-Grove) the night before (loss to Libertyville),” Nocella said. “This game we were running our offense and I think our speed caught them off guard.
“The kids did a very good job. I thought they could have given up at any time. But they played the full 32 minutes.”