Timothy Christian doesn't miss second chance
Timothy Christian looked like it was going to separate itself from visiting Westmont in the second quarter of Saturday's girls basketball game.
After a false start in the second, the Trojans didn't miss their chance in the third quarter. Timothy Christian took advantage of 30 Westmont turnovers and stormed to a 63-25 nonconference victory in Elmhurst.
"I didn't really feel like it was a blowout," Timothy Christian captain Olivia Hoekstra said. "A little nervous in the beginning because it was a slow start."
Timothy Christian jumped out to a 22-10 lead on Jordyn Strube's 3-pointer with three minutes left in the second quarter and it looked like the Trojans were going to make a statement in the second quarter. But Westmont fought back to score the next 8 points. Five Trojans points later, Timothy took a 27-18 lead into the halftime locker room.
"I don't think we were worried," Hoekstra said. "We knew we still had our bigs down low. We had the speed and the ballhandlers over them."
And the Trojans had a halftime adjustment in store.
The second half was all Timothy Christian (6-3), which held the Sentinels to 7 points in the final 16 minutes. By the end of the third quarter, the Trojans led 47-23.
"We pushed them left," Hoekstra said. "They couldn't dribble with their left hand. I was just trying to get deflections and steals, and that really changed the momentum of the game, turned it toward us."
"When we went into halftime, we just told the guards what they had to do," Timothy Christian coach Michele Strube added. "We had to push them left. Overplay the passing lanes, use our speed for the steals, and it was fun to see them."
Hoekstra had 6 steals in the third quarter and finished with 8 steals for the game. All 10 Trojans scored, with Hoekstra, the team captain, adding 4 points.
It also helped that Westmont 6-foot center Kailee Schacht went to the bench with foul trouble in the second half. She had 6 blocked shots and 6 rebounds in the first half but none in the second, and her absence cleared the way for the Trojans' four 6-footers to score in the low post.
"That's really helpful when you get a big out," Hoekstra said.
Jordyn Strube, a sophomore guard and the coach's daughter, came off the bench for a game-high 12 points, adding 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
"She's been good," coach Strube said. "She's been slowly getting more confident on her role a little bit. Allison (Zeilstra) is my starting point guard, but she really likes Jordyn in there with her, so the two of them, it's not just one point guard. I'm trying to figure out what combinations fit together."
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