Perfect tournament finish for host Warren

The holidays certainly have been happy for the Warren girls basketball team.

After starting the season 1-6, the Blue Devils used their own holiday tournament, the Blue Devil Classic, to make quite a turnaround.

Warren went a perfect 5-0 over the five-day tournament, including Saturday's 55-47 victory over Chicago Phillips in the championship game in Gurnee.

It's Warren's seventh tournament championship since 1999 and its first since 2012. The Blue Devils have won six games in a row are now 9-7.

"We had a long way to go, and we've come a long way," said Warren coach John Stanczykiewicz, who starts a freshman and two sophomores. "I was really proud of our effort. I really think we grew up during this tournament.

"Maybe we also were able to exorcise some demons from the last couple years. We got to the (tournament) championship game last year and didn't do so well. They were able to come back and do better for themselves."

Last year, Warren lost in its own tournament championship game to Wheeling by approximately 30 points. The lopsided outcome and disappointment from that was a source of motivation for the Blue Devils against Phillips.

"This is a really big deal for us because of last year," said sophomore forward Kaylen Dickson, who was on the varsity last year as a freshman. "Beating Wheeling (in Wednesday's semifinal) was really big for us, too.

"We are working better together and we're all stepping up more."

Dickson stepped up to the tune of 13 points. The Blue Devils were led by another sophomore, guard Jordyn Hughes. She scored a game-high 16 points. Warren got double-figures out of two other players. Freshman forward Dana Lundtveit had 13 points and junior forward Rebekah Foley had 11 points.

Warren handled Phillips' early full-court pressure and was up 14-10 by the end of the first quarter. The Blue Devils extended their lead to 8 points by halftime (31-23).

"If we would have applied (the press) in the right way, I think it would have (caused Warren more trouble)," Phillips coach Larry Stokes said. "But we were letting Warren set screens. And we weren't talking. We're young, we'll get better. Warren has a good team. We just couldn't get over this hump."

Phillips hit five 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to get as close as 6 points a few times. But the Wildcats repeatedly got beat with wide-open layups on the other end as they unsuccessfully went for steals in the backcourt. Lundtveit scored 8 of her points in the fourth quarter on those such plays.

"We just weren't jelling as a team," said Phillips senior guard Courtnee Williams, who scored a team-high 15 points on three 3-pointers. "Warren is a good offensive team and they broke down our defense and our press. We need to work on that."

Freshman guard Autian Fain added four 3-pointers for Phillips, which went 4-1 in the tournament and is also now 9-7 overall.

Williams and Jealisssa Presswood made the all-tournament team for Phillips while Dixon and Hughes made the all-tournament team for Warren.

Larkin 55, Wheeling 52: In the third-place game at Warren, Wheeling out-scored Larkin 20-14 in the fourth quarter but still couldn't get over the hump.

Marlee Kyles scored a game-high 22 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for Larkin while teammate Shawniece Colen Douglas added 17 points and 10 rebounds. Sarah El Rahmany finished with 10 points for Larkin.

For Wheeling, Melissa Claver scored a team-high 19 points while teammates Michaela Vasey and Shannon Kennedy added 12 and 11 points respectively.

Lake Forest 43, Deerfield 37: In the fifth place game at Warren, Lake Forest got a game-high 17 points from Maeve Summerville. She also had 12 rebounds. Olivia Douglass added 11 points for the Scouts.

Olivia Westrich was the only player to reach double-figures for Deerfield. She had 10 points.

Grayslake Central 41, Carmel 31: In the seventh place game at Warren, Grayslake Central got a balanced attack and got scoring out of eight players. Amanda Larson led the way with 9 points while Kelly Moroney had 8 points and Quin Garbett and Lindsay Brust each finished with 7 points.

For Carmel, Danielle Delozier scored a team-high 9 points. Daija Pruitt added 6 points and had 10 rebounds.