Hoffman Estates counts out Fenton

Pick a Hawk, any Hawk.

On a given night Hoffman Estates' girls basketball team can count on any number of players to step forward and score the basketball.

"Coming into this year, we didn't see any weakness in our lineup," said Hoffman Estates senior Alex Wulbecker. "Our bench is strong, too."

The Hawks improved to 3-0 in third-round play of Fenton's Thanksgiving tournament, beating the host Bison 51-33 in Bensenville.

Wulbecker led her squad with 11 points and 8 rebounds, while point guard Carol King had 10 points and 3 steals.

"And Megan Fischer must have had 4 or 5 assists with Alex," said Hoffman Estates coach Michael Nocella. "We're hitting the open girl, no matter who it happens to be."

"They can all shoot, they're all athletic, and they're all good basketball players," Fenton coach Tim Anderson said of the Hawks.

With the score tied 5-5 midway through the first quarter, Wulbecker keyed a Hawks attack of the offensive glass to help build a 13-6 Hoffman Estates lead after a quarter of play.

"That's something we really wanted to improve on," Wulbecker said of her squad's offensive rebounding. "We've worked hard on that in practice, and it's starting to show."

Fenton struggled to hit their shots and trailed 23-8 at halftime. The Hawks earned a 20-4 edge in rebounds to halftime, 10 of which came on the offensive end against the smaller Bison.

"That's going to be us this year," Anderson said. "We'll have to shoot the basketball well. If we had knocked down a couple shots in the first half, it might have been different."

After only scoring 2 points in the second quarter, Fenton (1-3) shot the ball better in the third in putting 14 points on the board. Sam Rubright scored 13 in the quarter, and her 19 total points accounted for more than half of Fenton's scoring for the game.

"Sam's going to sleep like a baby this year," Anderson said. "She's going to be so tired after every game, because she has to work so hard for us.

"But we have a whole bunch of things that we can build off from this game. I'm happy with the girls."

Despite Fenton's third-quarter scoring effort, Hoffman Estates scored 20 points in the third to take a 43-22 lead heading into the final quarter.

"We needed to step it up," Wulbecker said. "We had to realize that anyone can beat you in a given game, and we had to pick it up."