Rosary's height too much for Kaneland to handle
While 6-foot Jordan Rettig and 6-4 Katie Eckberg certainly gave Rosary the height advantage over Kaneland Tuesday night in Aurora, the Royals enjoyed a bigger gap in an area perhaps even more important to success.
Rettig, Lane Richmond and Katie Petrando all were in the Rosary starting lineup, all seniors in their fourth year of varsity basketball for coach Dave Beebe. With Eckberg and Stephanie Haugen joining them in an all-senior starting five, it marked a stark contrast to a Kaneland team with only one senior on its roster.
The result was no surprise, Rosary winning 50-32 in a game the Royals led 21-4 after the first quarter.
"We just have really grown together and it's been great learning from all the other players who moved on," said Rettig, who led all scorers with 11 points. "We have learned a lot and we are trying to teach stuff to the underclassmen so they can carry it on when we leave."
Petrando put Rosary (2-0) on the scoreboard 5 seconds into the game on a basket off the opening tip. Emily Heimerdinger and Nicki Ott both swished Kaneland's first two shots of the game; the Knights then misfired on their final 10 shots of the first quarter.
Rosary did capitalize on its height advantage, with Eckberg adding 8 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks to Rettig's 11 points, 9 rebounds and 5 steals.
"Just looking at them (Kaneland) and seeing them last year with our big three we figured we could go down low as much as possible against them," said Beebe, whose team won its opener over IMSA 68-26 Monday.
Beebe substituted liberally, getting 12 players into the game by halftime. Kaneland's best stretch came after Rosary took its biggest lead of the night, 47-21, with 3:01 left in the game.
Tesa Aldeman, one of three sophomores to see heavy minutes for the Knights, stole the ball on three straight trips, scoring twice and feeding McKinzie Mangers for another basket that cut the lead to 48-27.
Beebe inserted his starting guards Richmond and Haugen back in the game after the flurry of turnovers.
"I thought we played an excellent first quarter and the rest of the game we just walked through," Beebe said. "We can't do that. Kaneland had a lot of heart and they played hard."
Haugen shot the ball well and scored 10 points, while Petrando did a little of everything with 8 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 assists. Breann Maryanski led Rosary's bench with 6 points and 7 rebounds.
Ott paced Kaneland with 8 points followed by Alderman's 7.
"We didn't play the way we wanted," Kaneland coach Ernie Columbe said. "I thought we were real tentative in the first half. A little nervous, a lot of jitters but I was happy in terms of the way we battled and tried to stay in it as long as we could. We'll go to work in practice and get better."
Rosary made 12 of 20 from the free-throw line while the Knights were just 2 of 7. Kaneland also struggled from the field, hitting 19 of 56 and turning the ball over 24 times.
"Their size really hurt us all night," Columbe said. "We really didn't have an answer. Not only did they have height they are really strong. Tough opener. They are a good team no doubt about it."