Girls basketball: Yerkovich, Downers Grove North stretch past Glenbard West

Eva Yerkovich made sure to thank her Downers Grove North teammates for their contributions to her game-saving blocked shot Saturday.

She didn’t forget mom and dad.

It’s no coincidence that the talented freshman Yerkovich stands 6-foot tall with great length.

“My mom and dad, they gave me those genes,” Yerkovich said. “My mom is 5-foot-11 and my dad is 6-foot.”

Yerkovich made a number of big shots to help the Trojans build and maintain their lead, and she scored a game-high 13 points.

Her most clutch contribution came defensively. Yerkovich soared in to block what appeared to be Nina Hendricksen’s open 3-point look for the tie from the right wing in the final seconds.

It preserved Downers Grove North’s 36-33 win over visiting Glenbard West in a matchup of West Suburban Silver leaders.

“Honestly, it was the help defense,” Yerkovich said. “We were double-teaming someone else and I had go to and recover for them.”

After Glenbard West’s Ellie Noble hit a 3-pointer to pull her team within a point, Downers Grove North’s Campbell Thulin swished two free throws with 11 seconds left.

It set up Yerkovich’s defensive heroics in a wild sequence at the other end. After her block Glenbard West airballed one final shot for the tie.

And it was no surprise to Downers Grove North coach Stephan Bolt.

“She can stretch. She has a really high ceiling, she’s going to be a great player,” Bolt said. “She not only made big shots, but that was a huge play to force the clock to tick.”

Thulin and Ady Fanta each added eight points for Downers Grove North (20-2, 8-1), which split the season series with Glenbard West (18-3, 7-2) and gained the inside track on the Silver title. Meehan scored 11 points and Austin nine for Glenbard West.

Yerkovich scored seven of her 13 points and made all three shots she took, one from beyond the arc, during Downers Grove North’s 15-4 first quarter.

And then she knocked down two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to push the Trojans’ lead back to 32-23 after Glenbard West had cut it to 2.

The shots were huge with the Hilltoppers’ defense limiting Thulin, Downers Grove North’s star, to just eight shot attempts.

“She is a freshman, she has had ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys which happens for a freshman — she’s come a really long way and she made some really big plays for us today,” Bolt said. “She played with confidence. When they tried to take away Campbell, our kids made a couple extra passes and she made some big shots when we were struggling to get stuff going.”

Yerkovich features a sweet stroke on her shot and shoots with confidence, which makes sense.

Her mom, the former Anne Mullins Ricchio, set an IHSA single-season record with 108 3-pointers as a junior at Sandburg, a mark that has since been broken.

“My teammates were driving and getting open, and I was just open because of their great passes,” Yerkovich said. “I’m just trying to show that I want to be helpful to them. I want to be there for them when they need it, and show that I can deliver when it needs to be done.”

In a role reversal from the teams’ first meeting, a 60-47 Glenbard West win in December in which the Hilltoppers jumped out to an 18-2 lead, it was Downers Grove North breaking ahead 15-4 after a quarter.

Glenbard West, though, slowly inched back, mainly on the strength of its defense.

The Hilltoppers held Downers Grove North to a combined two made field goals over the middle two quarters to close within 22-18.

Even when they got down again 32-23, the Hilltoppers came right back with a 7-0 run to get to within two on Austin’s basket with a minute left.

“These kids, they always fight hard, they never give up. For 32 minutes they’re going to play as hard as they can,” Glenbard West coach Kristi Faulkner said. “The one thing that is controllable is your defense. I feel like our defense is our best offense.”

While Noble, Glenbard West’s leading scorer, went scoreless until the last three minutes, Meehan picked up the slack with her 11 points, six rebounds and aggressive play.

“She works hard, she’s fast and she can hit 3s and she can get to the paint,” Faulkner said. “I was really happy to see how aggressive she was.”

After Austin’s basket to pull the Hilltoppers within 2, Fanta found an opening through the defense for a driving layup to get it back to 4.

“I think one of my teammates screened for me and got my defender to shift with them, they doubled her and I was able to take the lane by myself,” Fanta said. “My coach tells me if shots aren’t falling to keep shooting. I knew I had to take it to the rim.”

Downers Grove North has won six straight and followed an overtime win over Maine South Wednesday with another big one.

“Two good wins,” Bolt said. “Glenbard West is a great team, and a physical team. This was a battle.”