New look, same winning Wheeling result

Wheeling's girls basketball team has a brand new look from last season.

The Wildcats are smaller in size and they sport new uniforms.

But they still have the look of a winner.

Using a balanced scoring attack led by senior Janelle Cannon (12 points), senior Stephanie Kuzmanic (11), sophomore Kellie Kuzmanic (10), senior Larissa Aguero (9) and senior Bianca Szafarowicz (7), the highly-ranked Wildcats won their season opener 53-29 over Maine South on Tuesday night in Park Ridge.

Wheeling now has a two-game winning streak which started with last year's 59-40 victory over Geneva in the Class 4A third-place game.

Back then, the Wildcats featured 6-foot Ashley Wilson, who now plays for Purdue.

"Last season, we had Ashley to get us 15 rebounds a game," Cannon said. "Now everyone has to get down low. We were all over the boards. We worked a lot on boxing out."

The Wildcats pulled away late in the second quarter, leading by as many as 12 points.

Maine South cut it to 27-20 at the break and got to withing 5 early in the third quarter before the visitors went on a 9-0 run sparked by Stephanie Kuzmanic's layup off a great rifle pass in the lane from Cannon.

Top rebounders for the Wildcats were Cannon (7), Szafarowicz (6) and Stephanie Kuzmanic (4).

"We regrouped at half," added Cannon, who had 4 steals and 3 assists. "We were a little nervous in the first half and settled down in the second half when we made a little run."

"We talked a lot about our depth before the game," said Wheeling coach Shelly Wiegel. "Larissa (Aguero, a 5-8 forward who came off the bench) has looked good in practice and we wanted to give her an opportunity and did she ever take advantage. Kellie Kuzmanic had a real solid game for us. Janelle had a great vision and easily could have had a double-double had we hit our layups."

Szafarowicz also had 6 steals.

"Maine South did a nice job against us," Wiegel added. "They're so fundamentally sound that they keep us very honest and make us work. They are a great opponent to start out against."

And they were a young one, led in scoring by senior Becca Hoffman and sophomore Michelle Maher (6 points each).

"They (Wheeling) returned three starters from a team that was third in the state," said Hawks coach Mark Smith. "We started three sophomores. Our first guard off the bench is a sophomore and our first post off the bench is a freshman.

"We're young. But if we play as hard as we did this game, we'll be in fine shape in February. We executed very well on offense. What I didn't like is that we gave up too many buckets. We let up on the boards a little. That's where our youth hurt us."