Warren, Boothe silencing some critics with wins over Fenwick and Kokomo

The nearly unblemished record, the 6-foot-5 girl, the other Division I post, the coach who just joined the 200-win club.

Apparently, they're not enough to sell some people on Warren's girls basketball team.

"Everybody was saying we were going to lose all three games this weekend -- even people in our school," senior guard Shana Shepherd said. "We knew we were a good team and we just wanted to prove it."

The Blue Devils are proving it all right.

They made it two impressive wins in less than 24 hours Saturday, knocking off defending Class AA state champ Fenwick 60-46 as part of the Meijer Hoops Showdown at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates.

Warren (21-1) wraps up its busy weekend today, when it plays undefeated Parkland Academy from Miramar, Fla., at 11:45 a.m. at Whitney Young High School in Chicago as part of the MLK Dream Classic.

"Going into this weekend, they were excited," coach John Stanczykiewicz, who recorded his 200th career win Friday against Kokomo (Ind.) in the McDonald's Shootout, said of his players. "They wanted to look good. They wanted to make a statement that Warren is for real."

Not that she had to prove it to anyone, but Sarah Boothe showed again that she's for real. The 6-5 Stanford recruit had 25 points and 10 rebounds against Fenwick (20-5), which was coming off a 105-64 loss to South Bend (Ind.) power Washington in the McDonald's Shootout on Friday.

Boothe had 27 points and 14 boards in the Blue Devils' 51-49 win over Kokomo.

"I knew this was going to be a big weekend," Boothe said. "I knew I was going to have to really step up my game on the offensive and defensive ends, and just help my team. My teammates are doing a great job."

Lory Shaw, who recently committed to Wisconsin-Green Bay, added 12 points for Warren. Shepherd scored all 10 of her points, including two 3-pointers, in the first half in helping the Blue Devils build a 36-32 lead.

"This was amazing," Shepherd said of playing at the Sears Centre. "Everyone was a little nervous at the beginning, but as soon as we got going we just got into it because the atmosphere was so awesome."

Warren led 22-19 after the first quarter as Boothe (10 points), Shepherd (7) and Shaw (5) accounted for all of the Blue Devils' points.

Tricia Liston, Fenwick's super sophomore, hit 4 shots from the floor and had 12 points in the opening quarter. But Shaw and Megan Wozniak held her without a field goal the rest of the game.

Liston was the Friars' only player in double figures with 16 points (8 of 8 from the foul line).

"I can't say enough about the effort on Liston," Stanczykiewicz said.

Wozniak's effort coming off the bench was huge, as she also contributed 6 points.

"After our game (Friday), when we were watching the Fenwick/Indiana team game, I was a little nervous because 'Stan' (Stanczykiewicz) was like, 'You might guard (Liston),' " Wozniak said. "She was dropping points (23) the whole time.

"I didn't have that great of a game (Friday), so today I was determined that I had to go out there and play my hardest on defense and on offense. It was good because if (Liston) did beat me, I had help defense."

Warren limited Fenwick to 5 points in the third quarter and led by as many as 20 points in the fourth.

"I'm really proud of our effort," Stanczykiewicz said. "Coming off a game (Friday), our concern was fatigue and playing on the big court against a team whose style is generally guard-oriented, but I thought we played really well."