Banged-up Bulldogs win
The losses keep piling up for Wauconda's girls basketball team.
Refreshingly for the Bulldogs, however, this year the losses are not reflected in final scores.
In fact, Wauconda is 7-0 after trouncing visiting Lakes 43-16 Wednesday night in a North Suburban Prairie contest.
The Bulldogs, who improved to 3-0 in the division to keep pace with Round Lake, had only eight players in uniform. While they welcomed back sophomore Rosyln Summerville, who missed last Saturday's game against Grant with a minor head injury, they were without hard-luck senior Melissa Dahlberg, who sprained an ankle in practice Tuesday.
Dahlberg, mind you, needed surgery on her other ankle before the season.
Melanie Prudhomme, meanwhile, played only about five minutes against Lakes (0-8, 0-2) after missing the Bulldogs' last two practices with the flu.
She had been starting since veteran Kristin Brown suffered a season-ending ACL injury in practice after the Bulldogs' third game.
"This has been a rough last week for us," coach Jaime Weber said. "We've definitely been bitten by the injury bug. And having only 10 (players on the roster), that really hurts."
At least the winning has been fun for a program that hasn't won consistently in many years. Since the 2003-04 season, Wauconda has seen its win totals increase from 3 to 4 to 5 to 11 to 13 last season.
Weber, a Wauconda graduate who assisted former head coach Tim Bartusch the last four seasons, believes it's the first time since at least the 1980s that the team has gotten off to this kind of start.
"I think the girls are giddy," said Weber, whose Bulldogs get a good test Friday night when they visit Antioch. "But we try to keep a pretty even keel in practice, and after games there are always things we feel we can improve on."
The Lakes game included.
While Wauconda jumped out to a 19-2 lead after one quarter - with guard Kate Martino scoring 9 of her game-high 13 points - and pitched a 10-0 shutout in the second quarter, the Bulldogs didn't exactly continue to dominate.
They committed 15 second-half turnovers, got outscored 6-3 in third quarter and won the fourth only 11-8.
"But it's a win," Weber said. "With our personnel right now, you got to get some of those girls that are playing full games some rest. With only 6-7 players in practice, practices are tough and tiring for them, and games are tough because they don't have subs."
Lauren Mead added 8 points and 5 rebounds for Wauconda, which also got 6 steals from Tammy Ellis. Prudhomme had 4 points and 2 steals in her limited minutes.
Lakes received 7 points from Mary Doupis and 7 rebounds from Asja Triplett. Amber Larsen hustled for 8 rebounds, 3 points and 2 steals.