Big test for St. Edward vs. Montini
St. Edward girls basketball coach Michelle Dawson knew she had a solid core of returning players this season. What Dawson has been most pleased with thus far is how those experienced players have meshed with the Green Wave's new players.
As she should be. St. Edward is off to a 5-0 start for the first time in Dawson's eight years as the Green Wave's coach and for the first time since at least 1993-94. St. Edward won the Dakota Thanksgiving Tournament for the first time, beating Class 1A No. 2 Freeport Aquin 50-41 in the championship game.
"I like the team play so far a lot," Dawson said Monday. "We've had some girls in and out of foul trouble and someone new has stepped up each game and not just with scoring but with aggressive rebounding and key defensive stops. It's been solid team basketball offensively and defensively."
The Wave's solid core of returnees include seniors Callie Johnson, Maddie Kerr, Alex Lee and Katherine Von Ahnen as well as junior Rena Ranallo. Senior returnee Paige Gannon has yet to play in a game as her injured ankle is in a cast and Dawson said Gannon won't be back before Christmas.
But what's really pleased Dawson and the Wave is the play that's come from the less experienced varsity players like senior Kelly Tripicchio and sophomores Katie Swanson and Clarissa Ramos.
"Kelly, Katie and Clarissa have done a real solid job so far for us," Dawson said. "Katie and Clarissa have stepped up when we've needed them and Kelly Tripicchio has been aggressive with the basketball and is taking it to the basket. Those three aren't people we count on for a majority of our scoring but they can hit a basket here and there and make some defensive stops."
Even though St. Edward, ranked No. 20 in this week's Daily Herald Top 20, played predominately Class 1A competition at Dakota, Aquin is one of the favorites to make it downstate this season and River Ridge, which St. Edward beat 49-26, was second at the Class 1A state finals last season. Dakota is also a program that annually goes deep into the Class 1A postseason.
"Dakota forced us to make some adjustments to their style of play," Dawson said. "River Ridge and Aquin are both quality teams. There was good competition there."
St. Edward, which advanced to a sectional final last season, will need all of its momentum from last week and then some tonight when the Wave host two-time defending Class 3A champ Montini in the Suburban Christian Blue opener at 7 p.m. No. 4 Montini, the top-ranked Class 3A team in the state, went 4-1 at the Oswego tournament, losing only in the finale, 55-52, to Geneva. Montini was 69-3 over the last two state championship seasons.
The Broncos, though, are a much younger team this year having graduated three Division I recruits but that doesn't mean they are any less talented. The lone returning starter is 6-foot senior Tianna Brown, who is committed to SIU-Edwardsville. Then there's 6-4 junior Diamond Thompson, who recently committed to Notre Dame, 6-4 junior Malayna Johnson and 5-6 junior Nikia Edom, who hit 35 3-pointers last season.
"This is going to be a big test for us," said Dawson, whose team has lost 18 straight to Montini, last beating the Broncos 49-46 on Jan. 19, 2002. "We'll see how we handle their pressure and size. It will be a learning experience for us."
St. Edward lost to Montini 87-38 and 87-49 last year.
"We're definitely hoping to compete with them better this year than we did last year," Dawson said. "We have the athletes to do so. I'm excited to see where we're at and where we need to go."
High-flying Hawks: Bartlett's impressive 5-0 run at the Naperville Central/Benet tournament earned the Hawks the No. 1 spot in this week's Daily Herald Top 20 and there's no reason to think the Hawks won't hold that spot for a while. Bartlett (6-0) has won its first six games of the season by an average of more than 32 points with Huntley, at 55-41 in the nontournament season opener, coming closer than anyone so far.
"I love the way the kids are playing," said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna. "These guys have been playing together a good long time and they're really unselfish kids. We still have a lot of work to do but they're hustling, they're sharing the ball and it's fun to coach a team like this."
The Hawks have been led by the senior quartet of Indiana recruit Haley Videckis, Kristin Conniff, Janessa Baker and Lisa Palmer, all of whom returned a ton of experience from last year's 28-2 team. Senior Katie Gutzwiller has stepped in as the No. 5 starter and done an admirable job and Sarna has been most pleased with the play of seniors Ashley Johnson and Nicole Gobbo off the bench.
"We knew we had four pretty steady players back but those three kids have waited their turn and now they've come in and are doing a real nice job for us," Sarna said. "They've rounded out our lineup beautifully. They just want to be contributors to the team and they all have been in their own ways. It's their turn now and they've done a really nice job. They know what to do, when to do it and how to work together."
The Hawks will take on Larkin Thursday before opening defense of their Upstate Eight Valley championship at home Saturday at 2:30 p.m. against Metea Valley.
These kids can play: After losing its season opener to No. 1 Bartlett, Huntley came back strong with a 3-1 showing at the War-Hawk Tournament in Aurora. The Red Raiders lost a tough 37-36 decision to DeKalb but handled Naperville North, West Aurora and Minooka.
"We're off to a pretty solid start and we've been very competitive," said Huntley coach Steve Raethz. "I've been pleased with how we've defended and if we continue to do that, rebound and give ourselves opportunities offensively we could have a nice season."
While Huntley lost the bulk of its scoring from last year's 20-9 regional champion with the graduation of Kadie Lowery and Carly Goede, 5-10 sophomore Sam Andrews (14 ppg) and 5-10 junior Haley Ream have stepped up and become leaders along with 5-8 senior Abbey Shaw.
"Haley Ream and Abbey Shaw saw some time on varsity last year and Sam Andrews has done a nice job in the post so far," Raethz said. "We were put into some different scenarios at the Thanksgiving tournament. Some we capitalized on and some we didn't but that's going to help us with different situations that will come up during the season."
Working out the kinks: After going 27-3 last season, a 1-4 start isn't something that Hampshire is used to, but Whip-Purs' coach Ed Haugens, in his second season at Hampshire, isn't about to panic yet.
"Right now we're working on putting four quarters together," said Haugens, whose team did that in its 53-43 win over Streamwood in the Dundee-Crown tournament. "All of our stuff is fixable. We're just missing too many bunnies and we're missing too many free throws. It's just chemistry right now."
Hampshire's inexperience runs deep, with seniors Michelle Dumoulin and Grace Jakubowski and junior Jen Dumoulin the only players with significant varsity experience. Juniors Tiffany Bentley and Elizabeth Panzica continue to come along as well.
"We've got a lot of kids who don't have a lot of varsity experience," said Haugens, whose team enters Fox Valley Conference Fox Division play next week for the first time. "Every school we played (at Dundee-Crown) is bigger than us and we haven't played in a tournament like that before so it really does us good. I've always liked tournaments at Dundee-Crown. It's good competitiom, it's close and all three levels play at the same time."
Hampshire will try to get back on track Friday when it plays an FVC crossover at Crystal Lake South. On Saturday the Whips will host
Milestone watch: South Elgin senior Becca Smith, headed to Loyola, would need to average about 22 points per game the rest of the season to reach the 2,000-point milestone for her career. Smith, who missed a portion of last season with a knee injury, currently has 1,521 career points. Meanwhile, Bartlett seniors Haley Videckis (856) and Kristin Conniff (811) should reach the 1,000 mark this season.