Saturday's Cook County roundup
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, defeating 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 Mike 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."
Rolling Meadows 50, Glenbrook North 30: Maddy Urban (15 points, 4 steals), Kelly Zahorski (10 points) and Maddy Conlin (9 points) were top scorers for Meadows which gave rookie coach Todd Hatfield his first win.
The Mustangs are now 1-3 in the Mundelein tourney which resumes next week.
Conlin, a 5-foot-5 sophomore guard, also had 8 rebounds.
"She is fearless," Hatfield said. "If you told her she's 5-foot-5, she'd call you a liar."
Freshman Ann Marie Lynch (5-8 guard) added 5 rebounds and 4 assists for the winners.
"She is an amazing athlete," Hatfield said. "She is unbelievable to watch on defense. She already had 2.5 steals per game. She is so fun to watch. She is fearless. She just has a motor on her that won't quit."
South Elgin 55, Elk Grove 47: Ashley Capotosto (24 points) and Olivia Roback (8) were top scorers for the Grenadiers (1-2) in the third-round game of the Fenton-Elk Grove tournament.
Waubonsie Valley 58, Conant 43: Emma Loos (17 points) and Lauren Jason (15) led the Cougars (1-1) in the opening round of the Waubonsie Valley tournament.
Prospect 58, Downers Grove South 27: Lexi Glennon scored a team-high 11 points with 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals as the Knights (2-1) won their first-round game of the Lyons tourney.
"We played really good defense and Lexi really played well," said Knights coach Martha Kelly. "It was a total team effort."
Other key contributors were Rachel Hunt (9 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists), Sarah Winans 10 (points), Alyssa Baker (10 points), Megan Geraghty (6 rebounds, 5 points), Alyssa Glennon (3 steals) and Danielle Brucci (3 steals).
Fremd wins twice: Fremd (3-1) notched a pair of wins at the Dundee-Crown tourney, stopping St. Viator 41-39 in overtime and Dundee-Crown 62-36.
Junior forward Gianna Abruzzo led the way for the Vikings (3-0 in the tourney) against St. Viator with 19 points while classmate Taylor Glassmann chipped in 9. Glassmann and sophomore Allie Gaeding each had 3-pointers.
The Lions were led by Susan Hohenadel (15 points) while teammates Colleen Nolan and Kelly Hendricks each added 6.
Against Dundee-Crown, the Vikings received 17 points from Glassmann, followed by senior Katie Hetzner (15) and Abruzzo (10).
Glassman, Gaeding and Hetzner each had 3-pointers.
Schaumburg.
Wheeling 61, Niles North 28: Bianca Szafarowicz (14 points), Ashley Wilson (12 points) and Janelle Cannon (9) led Wheeling (3-0) which improved to 2-0 in the Niles North tournament.
The state ranked Wildcats made 18-of-26 free throws and had one 3-pointer from Cannon.
St. Charles East 61, Schaumburg 52: Sarah Kellermeyer had 15 points and 14 rebounds for the Saxons (1-2) in the third-round game of the Schaumburg tournament. Taylor Kosla added 13 for the Saxons.