Collins helps Maine West stop LZ
When she played junior high basketball the last few years for Our Lady of Destiny in Des Plaines, Brittany Collins would sometimes head over to Maine West High School.
"I hoped I'd be on the girls varsity basketball team as a freshman because I saw how good they were and how well they played as a team," she said.
Well, Collins is on the varsity now and one of the reasons the Warriors are playing well with a 3-0 record in 2011.
The 6-foot freshman scored 22 points with 11 rebounds and 5 blocked shots on Wednesday night as the Warriors topped Lake Zurich 40-30 in the Sweet 16 game in Des Plaines.
"She's a nice player," said Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett, whose team is 9-12. "She has good hands and she keeps the ball high."
Warriors coach Derril Kipp also gave high marks to junior point guard Amanda Hoye, who was often able to get the ball inside to Collins.
Hoye dished out 6 assists with 7 points and 5 rebounds.
"Amanda has been giving us a much better floor game and that's really helping," said Kipp, whose team improved to 6-13 heading into Friday's Central Suburban North showdown at first-place Highland Park. "Our overall guard play is starting to improve. I think we're playing much better as a team."
A 12-foot baseline jumper by Bears senior Katherine Anderson (6 points) tied the game at 6-6 but West went on an 8-0 run to take control.
Hoye grabbed a long rebound and went coast-to-coast for layup to make it 12-6. On West's next possession, Hoye made nice bounce pass to Collins near the basket for a layup and 14-6 lead.
The Warriors' defense allowed just 1 basket in the second quarter, a layup by Bears senior guard Karlissa Skarb with 1:10 left in the half.
West went into the break leading 22-13 but had trouble scoring early in the third quarter.
Lake Zurich closed to within 22-17 on 2 free throws by Cathryne Spear and a driving bank shot Dori Darras (8 points).
West got its first second-half field goal when Collins found Kayla Kennelly for a layup with 2:10 left in the third quarter for a 26-17 lead.
The Warriors also limited Lake Zurich to one basket in the fourth (Maise Cox with 1:50 left).
"We did a nice job at the beginning of the third quarter but other than that, we just couldn't get anything going against their matchup man-to-man defense," Bennett said. "We did not do a good job attacking it. We needed a momentum play and just couldn't get it."
Meanwhile, Collins kept her offensive momentum throughout the game, scoring in every quarter and making 4 of 7 free throws.
"You can see we are not the tallest team," Bennett said. "Sometimes we do a better job guarding the post but they did a good job getting (Collins) the ball."
Kipp got 14 girls into the game, with Megan John, Stephanie O'Neill and Alexia Prosperi also contributing points to the offense.
"It's a good thing we played good defense," Kipp said. "Because we had a stretch there where we didn't score much.
"Hey, we're 3-0 this year (2011). We haven't lost yet. That's great."
Lake Park 42, Palatine 31: Sophomore Nia Pappas (17 points, two 3-pointers) and junior Kaitlyn Burke (10) led visiting Palatine (6-13) in the nonconference game.