Nazareth’s pressure gets to Benet
Amalia Dray has not yet cemented her final basketball legacy at Nazareth, but her head coach already has the 5-foot-9 senior guard in rarefied air.
“I’ve been coaching a long time, and the other day at home my daughter and son said, ‘Coach, give me your all-time starting five,’” said Nazareth’s Eddie Stritzel, who has won over 400 games in 16-plus seasons. “I looked at them and said, ‘Wow, there are some really good players.’ I kept trying to figure out my fifth, and it’s her.
“Ama is irreplaceable. I’ve never seen a motor like her. It never stops.”
Dray, who will play soccer collegiately at Boston College, is the head of a Nazareth team that gives opponents fits with its ball pressure.
It did Wednesday at Benet, and Dray’s shot-making pulled Nazareth out of some early offensive doldrums. Dray hit three first-half 3-pointers and had five of the Roadrunners’ 15 steals in a 51-33 win over Benet in the East Suburban Catholic Conference.
Dartmouth recruit Olivia Austin scored a game-high 20 points, 16 in the second half, with eight rebounds. Sophomore Stella Sakalas scored 10 points for Nazareth (6-2, 2-1), which bounced back from a rare loss, to Marian Catholic, in a big way. Nazareth forced 20 turnovers and held Benet (6-4, 2-1) without a field goal for an 11-minute stretch in the first half to lead 20-8 at halftime.
“We didn’t shoot very well at Marian, or play very well,” Dray said. “We wanted to get back to our roots tonight where defense leads to our offense, not just getting steals but forcing teams into turnovers.”
Nazareth, led by the guard tandem of Dray and Mary Bridget Wilson, does plenty of that. Freshman Sophia Towne came off the bench to add four steals.
“MB and I have been playing defense in the 2-3 since we were in sixth grade on our AAU team,” Dray said. “We read off of each other, play off of each other. Dani [Scully] is a beast in the middle, Olivia shooting in the passing lanes. It’s an irreplaceable group.”
Dray, who was at a soccer tournament during Nazareth’s only other loss, to Downers Grove North, sure is. She scored eight of Nazareth’s 10 second-quarter points with back-to-back 3-pointers in the final three minutes of the half. Then Austin turned it on after halftime.
“They’re the same kids, Olivia, Ama – I’m really lucky to have such a group,” Stritzel said. “Ama, she’s a one-man wrecking group.”
Nazareth already has two more in-state losses than it did during the entirety of last season, when it won the Class 3A state championship.
The Roadrunners are going deep into their bench with youth this season, which lends to growing pains. But Stritzel believes the payoff could be huge as Nazareth plays up in Class 4A this year.
“We feel we have a chance to, I think, be a little better than last year, because we’re deeper,” Stritzel said. “Last year we played six kids. We’re playing eight to 10. With that comes a learning curve with the young kids, but the upside is good.
“Tonight I thought was our best game of the year. I keep telling the girls we’re going to keep getting better and better, can’t look at the record. I love our upside.”
Benet coach Joe Kilbride, likewise, wasn’t looking at the result Wednesday as much as the process. Emilia Sularski scored nine points on three second-half 3-pointers to lead Benet, which struggled to navigate Nazareth’s pressure defense.
“You can’t turn it over like we did. We were backing up, and I’m not exactly sure why,” Kilbride said. “It’s not a physical thing. The effort is good, but we’re playing afraid, and I’m not exactly sure why. They [the Roadrunners] do a nice job, they’re long and athletic, but there really is no reason to throw the ball around the gym like that.”
Benet’s four losses, to Batavia, Kenwood, Maine South and Nazareth, are all against quality opponents. Kilbride’s concern is with his group’s approach.
“We talk about being dogs, not kitty cats,” he said. “I feel like at times we’re on our back feet. We’re young, we’re figuring some things out. I really like this group. I’m disappointed, because that’s not who we are. We’re better than that.”