Milestone night for Buffalo Grove's Welter
This night belonged to Maddie Welter.
The Buffalo Grove senior guard sank a school-record eight 3-pointers at Elk Grove on Friday, and the final one with three minutes left made her the 13th girls basketball player at BG to reach 1,000 career points.
Welter tied her career-high with 26 points as BG topped the Grenadiers 61-45 to improve to 2-0 in the Mid-Suburban East and 7-2 overall.
"To be among the best shooters at Buffalo Grove says something, because there have been some great ones here," said BG coach Steve Koldoziej, who is in his fourth season. "This girl is lights out. She can flat-out shoot."
Welter had one 3-pointer in the first quarter, two in the second, three in the third and two more in the fourth.
"She really caught fire in the second half," Kolodziej said of the St. Xavier (Chicago) recruit. "Her teammates recognized she had the hot hand and got her the ball."
Welter finished 8-of-14 from 3-point land.
She already holds the No. 1 and 2 single-season records for most 3-pointers at BG with 85 as a junior and 79 as a sophomore.
She has 28 this season.
"If you were with us at practice every day, this would not surprise you at all," Kolodziej said of Welter's school-record performance. "It was just a matter of time."
Senior teammate Sammy Stejskal wasted no time putting the ball in the basket, scoring 12 of her 16 points in the first two quarters while classmate Natali Dimitrova added 11 for the Bison.
Sarah Pauscher led EG (1-8, 0-2) with 22 points, scoring 11 in the final quarter.
Abbey Sloan added 9 for the Grens.
Fremd 64, Hoffman Estates 22: The visiting Vikings improved to 10-0 and 2-0 in the MSL West as Bryana Hopkins (17 points) and Grace Tworek (13) were leading scorers.
Hoffman Estates (4-5, 0-2) was led by Monraia Wilson (9).
Haley Williams and Amanda McCartney had 3-pointers for Fremd while Erin Hanson had one for the Hawks.
Hersey 54, Wheeling 28: Gina Miklasz (15 points, one 3-pointer), Maggie Berigan (11 points), Claire Gritt (9 points) and Claire Niemczyk (8 points) were top scorers for host Hersey, which raised its record to 10-0 and 2-0 in the MSL East.
Melissa Claver led the Wildcats (3-6 0-2) with 10 points. Teammates Nansy Velev and Coco Yoshino had 3-pointers.
Maine West 62, Niles North 39: Maine West freshman Rachel Kent was 1 shy of her career high, scoring a game-high 25 points with 9 9 rebounds.
Senior teammate Jordan Hart added 15 points (one 3-pointer) and 5 rebounds as host Maine West improved to 8-3 and 3-0 in the Central Suburban North.
Liz Sanchez hit a pair of 3-pointer for the Warriors while teammates Catherine Johnson and Richa Patel had one apiece.