Glenbard East wins sixth straight

Glenbard East seems to have found the secret to turning around its girls basketball season.

"I feel like we're being more competitive now," Rams senior Lisa Stranski said. "We realize that we're taller than the other teams so we can use the height to get the points."

Stranski, one of three 6-footers in the Glenbard East rotation, scored 10 points off the bench to help the Rams to their sixth consecutive victory, 60-23 at West Chicago on Tuesday.

"We had kind of a rough start," Rams coach Nicole Miller said. "We went 1-4. And then we've won ever since."

The secret is really pretty simple.

"We have three 6-footers on our team and it's really about putting the whole package together of the inside-outside game. And people are really starting to step up and do what they're able to do, which opens up for other people," Miller said.

Ten Rams (7-4, 5-0) scored out of the 13 who played, led by point guard Lauren Huber's 16 points. Huber was part of an all-junior starting five Tuesday.

The Rams scored the game's first 8 points, then went on a 14-0 run, ending with a pair of Madison Ziemer free throws early in the second quarter to make the score 22-2.

"Defensively, we've tightened down a lot and done a great job, but offensively we've really found a rhythm with everybody on the team coming in and doing their part," Miller said.

One of those players was Stranski.

"I think I just had a good day. My team was helping me out by getting me the ball," she said.

Shailee Patel led West Chicago (2-8, 0-4) with 10 points. Sadie Obenauer added 8 points.

"The problem when you have a history of not winning, it's like, oh, here we go again," said first-year West Chicago coach Mark Fitzgerald, who has 42 players in the program this year, up from 17 a season ago. "Now there's some kids out there trying as hard as they possibly can. But overall we're just not there yet where they understand we can compete. It's going to come, and I have to be patient with it."