Unbeaten Wheeling motors to victory over Rolling Meadows

Wheeling's state-ranked girls basketball team will make a bus trip to the state capitol today to prepare for Saturday's noon game against Fort Zumwalt High School of Missouri.

On Thursday night, the Wildcats were like a runaway bus, motoring to a 24-2 lead and never looking back in a 65-34 win over visiting Rolling Meadows in a Mid-Suburban League East Division contest.

"We're really excited," said the Wildcats' Purdue-bound Ashley Wilson (17 points, 10 rebounds, 5 steals) about Saturday's game in Springfield. "It's pretty cool to play a team from out of state and see where we stand."

The Wildcats are standing as one of the state's premier teams - sporting a 9-0 record and 2-0 in the East.

Their full-court pressure proved to difficult for Meadows (2-6, 0-2) to negotiate in the first quarter.

"Unfortunately, it took us 15 points to figure out how to break their press," said Meadows coach Todd Hatfield. "We scouted them and prepared for it. But they're so long and so fast, we don't have the type of players to challenge that."

Janelle Cannon (16 points, 7 rebounds) and Bianca Szafarowicz (15 points, 6 steals, 4 assists, 3 rebounds) also reached double figures for Wheeling, while teammate Stephanie Kuzmanic added 5 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals.

"Stephanie continues to attack the basket," said Wheeling coach Shelly Wiegel. "When teams try to focus on our key people, we have others stepping up."

Senior guard Maddy Urban led Meadows with 10 points, followed by senior Kelly Zahorski (8), freshman Amanda Gunn (6) and senior Paulina Gurbisz (6).

"We just wanted to go out with a fight in the second half," Urban said. "They're very fast. We tried the best we could and as hard as we could."

"This group has a lot of pride," Hatfield said. "You can see we are not the most talented offensive team, but we go after it on defense."

St. Viator 70, Marist 56: Junior guard Susan Hohenadel (6 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists) scored a career-high 26 points that included 15 of 15 free throws as the Lions (5-3, 2-0) beat Marist 70-56 in an East Suburban Catholic Conference game in Chicago.

Senior guard Kelly Hendricks (3 assists, 2 steals, 2 rebounds) added a career-high 17 points, while Jamie Blenner had 10 points and 7 rebounds.

Colleen Nolan and Mary Calov each had 8 rebounds, and Calov blocked 6 blocked shots.

"We rebounded so well," Hohenadel said. "We weren't going to let them have any second shots. It was really our defense."