Maine West wins share of crown
The seniors set the tone on Senior's night Friday in Des Plaines.
Then Maine West's girls basketball team rang up not only a 52-43 victory over visiting Highland Park but a share of the Central Suburban North championship.
Maine West and Deerfield, which lost at Niles North 73-55, finished at 8-2 in the conference, two games ahead of Highland Park (13-16, 6-4).
It marks the 23rd time in 28 years under Hall of Fame coach Derril Kipp that Maine West has been solo conference champs or tied for the crown (three times).
With a big crowd to also honor the Warriors' cheerleaders and showcase pompon squads from feeder schools, Kipp started his five seniors - Shaina Yalda, Jessica Ollerer, Margo Ehorn, Kelsey Hargesheimer and Shaneese Nelson.
The quintet staked the Warriors to a 7-0 lead less than four minutes into the contest, which served as the final home game for the seniors.
Nelson, making her first varsity start, scored a career-high 9 points with 8 rebounds.
It was the fifth win in six games for the Warriors (17-13).
"It was exciting," said Nelson, who was second in the CSL discus last year. "We hit a little bump in the road a few weeks ago but we got over it. I'm proud of our team. We're playing a lot better."
Hargesheimer played one of her best games and finished with 8 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
The senior guard scored 6 of her points in the third quarter when the Warriors outscored Highland Park 19-7 to take control of that game.
"Kelsey played a real nice game," Kipp said. "It was one of her better games for us. And Shaina (Yalda) got knocked around pretty well. She played a good game."
Yalda (6 points) had 2 of her team-high 7 assists in the period while Amanda Hoye (5 points) also had an assist on Hargesheimer's 17-footer, which made it 31-18 with 5:42 left in the quarter.
"It's been a crazy season," Hargesheimer said. "I really can't believe we've finished the regular season. But I'm glad we could go out with a win and this was a good way to end conference. This makes us excited to start playing in the regional."
Junior Megan O'Neill came off the bench to lead the Warriors with 12 points while classmate Sam Acosta (3 rebounds, 2 steals) added 8.
"All the seniors got to play, so that was nice," Kipp said. "It was a good way to end the regular season. Now the tournament starts. We'll see what happens."
The Warriors open against Resurrection at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Resurrection Class 4A regional.