Wave looking to rebound from tough night
The experience of having a pickup truck slam into the rear end of your bus on the way home from a tough loss is finally being put in the rear view mirror by the St. Edward girls basketball team.
Fortunately, no one was seriously injured when that happened to the Green Wave Tuesday night at Shales Parkway and U.S. 20 on their way home from Elmhurst, where they had suffered a tough 40-36 Suburban Catholic Conference loss to the Knights.
"Thank goodness everyone was OK," said Wave coach Michelle Dawson Thursday. "We were disappointed leaving the game but that kind of put things in perspective that it's only a game. A couple girls were pretty sore (Wednesday) but they were better (Thursday)."
Dawson said that while sophomore point guard Enza Ranallo continues to recover from a broken finger (she sees the doctor again Tuesday), the Green Wave offense has struggled to find consistency.
"We had a really rough first half shooting just 4-for-22," said Dawson of the IC game. "We were just off. We just didn't play real good team offense."
Freshman Maddie Kerr and senior Katie Yohn, the area's leading scorer at 22.1 points per game, have shared the point duties since Ranallo's been out.
"Katie's a very capable point guard," said Dawson. "But we have a much better flow to our offense with Enza out there. And we're asking Maddie to play positions 1 through 5 at times and she's just a freshman. She's done a great job of stepping up but we miss Enza out there."
Friday night the Green Wave (13-7, 5-3) head into the stretch run of the regular season at St. Francis, a team they haven't played yet this season due to a Dec. 19 snow out.
Honoring Katie: The Green Wave will honor senior standout Katie Yohn for eclipsing the 1,500 career point mark at halftime of Monday's rescheduled home game against Marian Central. Yohn, a Bradley recruit, currently has 1,547 career points.
Class 2A seeds: St. Edward is the No. 3 seed in the Aurora Christian regional. Ottawa Marquette and Seneca earned the top two seeds. Seneca beat the Green Wave 66-63 in overtime at the Somonauk Thanksgiving tournament and Ottawa Marquette stands at 14-5 for the season through Wednesday. The IHSA will release Class 1-2A postseason pairings Friday.
Class 1A seeds: Westminster Christian got the No. 3 seed at the Hinckley-Big Rock regional while Elgin Academy is seeded fifth. The host Royals, ranked No. 7 in the state at 17-3, is the top seed.
Nice win: Bartlett coach Denise Sarna's young team may have come of age last Saturday when it held off Crystal Lake South 52-48 in overtime at South. The win snapped South's 13-game winning streak and was just the Gators' third loss of the season.
"I was proud of our kids," said Sarna, whose team had lost several close games before the new year. "They didn't quit. They came from behind and they did a good job in the overtime, especially for it being our first overtime game. It was a good win."
Sophomore Jacki Gulczynski continues to be an inside force for the Hawks, averaging 15.6 points and 9 rebounds per game while 5-9 freshman Ashley Santos continues to impress, averaging 13.2 points and 4.4 rebounds, as well as sharing the team assist lead with Gulczynski.
"Our kids are playing well," said Sarna, whose team enters Friday night's home Upstate Eight Conference tilt against Neuqua Valley with a 10-7 record and 2-2 in the league, as well as a four-game winning streak. "We've been making strides defensively and on the rebounding end and we're getting more and more comfortable with each other and the system."
Crystal Lake South coach Kyle McCaughn was impressed with the Hawks.
"Bartlett's got a nice young team and Denise does a great job with those kids," McCaughn said. "They could cause some people some trouble down the road."
Makeup games: Streamwood will be at Lake Park on Monday and Bartlett will play at Larkin on Tuesday of next week in makeups of games that were called off last Friday due to the cold weather. The Bartlett at St. Charles North game snowed out on Dec. 19 will be played Feb. 11 and the St. Charles East at Streamwood game from Dec. 19 will be played Feb. 4.
Nice comeback: No team plays to lose, but sometimes a loss can be OK. Such was the case for Crystal Lake South when it lost to Bartlett 52-48 in overtime last Saturday. The Gators bounced back to win a key Fox Valley Conference Valley Division game on the road Tuesday, beating Cary-Grove 58-48.
"I don't think there's any question it helped," said South coach Kyle McCaughn of the Bartlett loss, which snapped a 13-game winning streak for the 17-3 Gators. "You never want to take a bump on the chin but it did allow us to take a step back and refocus. We played real well for three quarters in that game and not so well in one quarter. But we were able to make the adjustments we needed to make against Cary-Grove."
McCaughn's team, which plays at Jacobs Friday in another key Valley game, is right where he wants it to be.
"We're real happy with where we're headed," he said. "We have experience and that's the key. These kids have been with me three years and they know me. There haven't been any coach blowups this year."
McCaughn also points to the experience of his coaching staff, including fourth-year assistant Molly Czeslawski and first-year assistant Joe Komaromy, the retried Hall of Famer from Dundee-Crown.
"The addition of Joe has given the kids a sense of confidence," McCaughn said. "All the experience we have as players and coaches has been a real key."
The Gators continue to get balanced scoring with junior Katie Burton (10.3 ppg), junior Michelle Gaede (10.3) and senior Caitlin Mize (10.2 leading the way.
Rockets on the rise: Despite losing to a very talented Hampshire team last Friday, Burlington Central bounced back with an impressive 57-29 win over surging Streamwood Wednesday, leaving the Rockets at 11-9 heading into Friday night's matchup on Rocket Hill with Big Northern East co-leader Marengo.
"We played real well against Streamwood and this is how we're progressing," said Rockets' coach Wade Maisto, whose team has won 7 of its last 8 games. "We're not the same team we were two months ago."
Maisto says he won't need any special words of wisdom to get his team ready for Marengo, which is almost as big as Hampshire on the Rockets' rival radar.
"You don't need to get them fired up for Marengo," he said. "There will be 110 percent energy out there."
The Rockets continue to be led offensively by juniors Taylor Colby (14.3 ppg) and Jordan Maisto (14.0 ppg, area-leading 41 3-pointers) and senior Molly Turk (9.7 ppg). Turk had a solid 15-point outing against Streamwood Wednesday.
Around the area: The girls take center stage all over the area Friday night with Elgin (3-14, 1-3) at St. Charles East (10-6, 3-1), Neuqua Valley (8-12, 2-2) at Bartlett (10-7, 2-2), East Aurora (4-8, 0-4) at South Elgin (11-7, 3-3), and Larkin (2-13, 0-3) at St. Charles North (14-5, 4-0) in the Upstate Eight. Also in the UEC, league unbeatens Lake Park (14-5, 4-0) and Waubonsie Valley (14-4, 4-0) battle in Aurora. Streamwood (6-13, 1-3) is off this weekend. There's also a full round of games Friday in the Fox Valley Conference that includes Dundee-Crown (2-18, 0-4) at Cary-Grove (15-5, 2-1), Crystal Lake South (17-3, 3-0) at Jacobs (14-7, 2-1) and McHenry at Woodstock in the Valley. Huntley (11-8, 3-0) will host Prairie Ridge (8-11, 1-2) in the Fox Division. The Red Raiders travel to Johnsburg (15-5, 2-0) next Tuesday. In the Big Northern East, Hampshire (15-3, 5-0) is at Harvard Friday and then the Whip-Purs host South Elgin in an intriguing nonconference matchup at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Also Saturday, Huntley is at Hoffman Estates in a 2 p.m. nonconference game that was snowed out Dec. 19.