Hoffman Estates whistles happy tune
The theme for the officials in Tuesday’s opening-round game of the Hoffman Estates-Lake Park-Elk Grove Girls Basketball Invite could have been “Whistle While You Work.”
There were 49 fouls called — 22 on the host Hawks and 27 on visiting North Lawndale.
While both teams worked hard through the whistles for all 32 minutes, the Hawks did the better work on the scoreboard for the majority of the contest. They eventually put away a 50-37 victory over the Phoenix.
“That was a pretty close game,” said Hawks 6-foot-1 junior forward Becca Stoczynski, who scored a game-high 18 points with 6 rebounds and 2 steals. “Once we got ahead, we got calmed down.”
The Hawks got rolling early in their season opener, taking a 12-3 lead on a pair of free throws by Stoczynski with 3:33 left in the first quarter.
Junior Tiffany Pitter’s rebound and 8-foot basket in the lane with 23 seconds left in the first half gave the Hawks a 21-12 cushion at intermission.
A 3-pointer by North Lawndale junior Shantell Wilson made it 24-17 with 6:15 left in the third quarter but that’s as close as the Phoenix got.
The Hawks came back with a 6-0 run, getting a driving layup from Stoczynski, a layup by Destinee Young (12 points, 12 rebounds) off a nice bounce pass from Mary Pettit (8 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals) and a layup by guard Sara Burns (8 points).
Late in the game, Burns grabbed a loose ball and quickly released a 10-foot swish from the middle of the lane for her eighth point.
“She’s so aggressive — I don’t understand how she does it,” Stoczynski said of the Hawks’ 5-foot-6 senior. “In practice, she’ll come out from nowhere and get the ball. We’re like, ‘How do you do that?”
“I don’t know how she (Burns) does it,” echoed Hawks coach Mike Nocella, whose team also received 4 rebounds from junior Shante Hill. “And Becca had a great game. She took the ball to the hoop, rebounded and made free throws (7-of-9).”
Young made a nice pass to Stocyznski for an easy layup in the first quarter which put Hoffman ahead 9-3.
“We connected very well,” said Stoczynski of her classmate and front-line partner Young.
North Lawndale (1-1) had some tough post play, too, in 5-10 senior Tytianna Powell (15 points on 7-of-12 free throws) and 6-2 sophomore Precious Harden (8 points).
“We missed some good opportunities,” said Phoenix first-year coach Terrance Crump, who was a Big Ten All-Academic selection and senior guard for Purdue in the 2007-08 season.
“When you are playing on the road, you have to be mentally tough. We put them on the free throw line too much (Hoffman was 19-of-35) and we had a couple of breakdowns defensively.
“We’re a young team. With time we will get better.”
Wilson also had 8 points for the west-side Chicago school, which topped DuSable 59-53 in overtime Monday.