Fully satisfying victory for Maine West at Willowbrook

Maine West's Derril Kipp was coaching in a record 26th straight game at the Subway Chicagoland Girls Prep Basketball Classic on Saturday.

But the hall of famer, in his 35th season, was more concerned that he was making the appearance with his entire roster.

For the first time this season, Kipp was able to use all of his players this weekend.

It paid off as the Warriors won back-to-back game in less than 24 hours, capped by a 58-46 victory over Hillcrest at Willowbrook High School, one day after rolling past Deerfield 72-44.

"He's a legend," said second-year Hillcrest coach Rex Martin, whose Lady Hawks are 12-6. "His teams do a great job, always fundamentally sound. And I was impressed by No. 15 (freshman Rachel Kent) and all his girls."

That word 'all' was key, as all of the Warriors (14-6) now includes senior Kayla Pociejewski, who has been sidelined since early December with a foot injury.

Pociejewski tossed in 14 points with on Saturday, second only to Kent's 16.

"It's awesome," said Pociejewski, also a softball standout." I love being able to come back and play now. The energy here is great."

Sophomore Destiny Onyeise missed three weeks over the holidays due to an out-of-country funeral and freshman Allison Pearson missed the first four games of the season with a foot injury.

"It's a completely different feeling when everyone is ready to go," Pociejewski added. "There's a different energy on the floor. It's very positive."

Saturday's positive result also included 4 points and 3 steals from Monica Liwag, who Kipp did not have for most of last season due to a knee injury.

"Monica and Kayla both played very well for us," Kipp said. "They are two senior leaders for us who have both been injured.

"It's nice to be able to look at our bench now and know you can change things on the floor if you need to. And it's nice that we are getting balanced scoring."

Sophomore Catherine Johnson had 8 points on Saturday while Pearson added 6. Seniors Jordan Hart and Eiliza Palarz each chipped in 4.

"We are all together playing now," Pociejewski said "So it's a great feeling."

Maine West fans started to get a good feeling about Saturday's game midway though the third quarter.

That's when the Warriors turned a 1-point lead with 4:26 left into a 7-point cushion by the end of the period.

A 3-point play by Pearson made it 34-30 and Hillcrest never got closer. Pociejewski hit a 12-foot pullup jumper to make it 36-30 and West led 44-37 at the end of the period thanks to two free throws by Liwag with seven seconds left.

The Warriors did not let up in the final eight minutes, taking their biggest lead at 57-42 when Hart hit a pair of free throws and one by Pearson.

"They were so much bigger than us," Martin said. "For a while we were hanging in there but we couldn't keep applying pressure to turn the game in our favor."

Joshulyn Shepard, a 6-foot-1 senior, kept the pressure on the Warriors with her game-highs of 22 points and 13 rebounds.

"No. 30 (Shepard) did a heck of a job," Kipp said. "We've got to get tougher at rebounding and boxing out if we want to keep getting further."

But Kipp likes being able to look further down his bench.

The depth showed as nine Warriors had at least 1 rebound, including four apiece from Onyeise and Kent.

Pearson, Johnson and Palarz had 2 each while Jessica Riedl. Liwag, Hart and Acacia Hernandez each had one.

"It's nice having all these players on our who haven't been able to play," Kipp said with a smile. "I knew it would be tough coming back from playing the night before. I think we were a little tired. We scored so many points (72) Friday night, I think they didn't know what to do this game."

But they knew how to win for the only person to coach every year in Jim O'Boye's long-running classic.