Rettig, Maryanski help Rosary overcome Eckberg's injury

Just three seconds into Rosary's game with Minooka on Saturday, the Royals were faced with a big problem.

Rosary's up-and-coming 6-foot-4 center Katie Eckberg may have won the tipoff for the Royals, but went down mere seconds later with a bum ankle.

"That was not good," Rosary's Jordan Rettig said. "We really need her. She's a great player."

That left Rettig the only player 6-foot or taller in the post. The junior, however, did fine without her tall teammate, as she scored 18 points and grabbed 8 rebounds in the Royals' 51-44 win over the Indians in the first day of Oswego's Holiday Classic.

It was the battle of the post-players, as Minooka's Jamie Selfridge and Ashley Stewart, both listed at 6-foot-1, took turns defending Rettig. Selfridge finished with a team-best 17 points and 10 rebounds for Minooka.

"It helps to have Katie," Rettig said. "Their posts were really aggressive, so I just tried to play through it."

In Eckberg's place was Breann Maryanski, a 5-10 sophomore who finished with 8 points, 11 rebounds and 4 steals.

"She did awesome, she really stepped up with Katie out," Rettig said.

"She had a big game today," Beebe added on Maryanski. "She got to play the whole game today, whether she wanted to or not."

Both teams were off to a slow start in the first half. The game was tied 5 times before Rettig and Maryanski scored back-to-back baskets that broke the final tie of 13.

Rosary (7-3) went on a 10-0 run in the third quarter, sparked by Rettig's back-to-back-to back buckets. The Royals' largest lead of the game was 13 points twice in the third quarter.

"We wanted to pick up the pace a little bit," Beebe said. "It seemed like the game was kind of dragging...we switched the offense up, and that helped."

The closest Minooka (6-4) came to catching up was after Morgan Novak's 3-pointer that reduced the Royals lead to 50-44 with 38 seconds left in the game. The Indians failed to score again and Rosary hung on to win.

Stephanie Haugen added 12 points and 6 rebounds for the Royals.