A-10 bound: Four area standouts headed to college careers in Atlantic 10

A year from now, women’s basketball in the Atlantic 10 Conference won’t be short on freshmen from the northwest suburbs.

Four seniors currently leading their are teams will be members of the conference, including Hersey’s Annika Manthy (Richmond), St. Viator’s Mia Bergstrom (Saint Louis), Barrington’s Molly O’Riordan (Dayton) and Rolling Meadows’ Roisin Grandberry, who will move on to Loyola University.

“It just shows you how talented our area and conference is,” said Rolling Meadows veteran coach Ryan Kirkorsky, whose Mustangs were back-to-back Class 4A state runner-ups in 2013 and 2014. “Year after year, we have some high-developed basketball players which makes our conference so competitive.”

One of those players was Jackie Kemph from the state runner up teams. Kemph was another who played in the Atlantic 10 for Saint Louis.

The standout guard happened to be recognized at Rolling Meadows’ program night’ two weeks ago and was recently announced as a selection to be inducted into the IHSA basketball hall of fame.

Now, Kirkorsky has Grandberry headed to the A-10 and she is excited to play for another area product.

The Loyola coach is Alison Guth, who starred at Buffalo Grove for hall of fame coach Tom Dineen.

“It’s a crazy world, really, really small.,” Grandberry said referring to playing for another former MSL star. “She’s a great coach. She is really good at what she does. She is big on family. Obviously, she has grown up in the Arlington Heights area. Just that she was from the area really helped me make my decision. It made me feel more like family.”

Speaking of family, Roisen’s sophomore sister Dalia is her teammate. In fact, on more than one occasion, one will feed the other down low for an assist.

“Obviously, they’re both so talented,” Kirkorsky said. “But they’re both so unselfish and want to see the best for each other and for their teammates. “

Dalia, also 6-foot-4 like Roisen, already has D-1 offers with more likely to come.

“It’s awesome we had last year and we’ll have this year together,” Roisen said. “Obviously it’s really special. We played together sometimes while growing up but to be able to play with her here and on our home court in high school is really cool.”

Historic win: The prestigious Maine West program reached its 1,000th win on Dec. 1 at Niles North.

Hall of famer Derril Kipp won 778 of those games from 1981 to 2015.

“We are the seventh team in the state to reach this achievement,” said coach Deanna Kuzmanic, “We plan on celebrating with current and future players and staff at our home game on Thursday, Dec. 21. The IBCA will be there for a presentation after our junior varsity around 6:30 p.m,. and our varsity plays at 7 p.m.”

Kuzmanic’s club is off to a 5-3 start, 3-0 in the Central Suburban North.

Amelie Mach, who was an all-tournament selection at the Schaumburg Thanksgiving Tournament, is averaging 10.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.5 steals while teammate Yanet Conde is averaging 4.1 assists and 2.5 steals.

Backing a Hall of Famer: For nine years, Courtney Ludois assisted Fremd coach Dave Yates.

She is now in charge at Hersey, which is off to a 6-3 start and 2-0 in the Mid-Suburban East.

One of the Huskies losses is to Fremd, a program in which Ludois knows its coach as well as anyone.

“He (Yates) was the math department chair when I was at Fremd so (in addition to coaching for him), I taught for him, too,” Ludois said. “It’s his work ethic, He works harder than anyone I’ve ever met. He watches hours upon hours of film. He worked real hard and supported his math department members, He was the best at all the jobs that he did. I learned a lot from him.”

Maine East update: First-year coach Lance Newman has the Blue Demons off to a 5-3 start, including a 46-35 win over Zion Benton in which Arabella Silva scored 24 points and Mariah Scott added 18 while playing about three quarters of the game.

Freshman Arabella Silva is leading the team in scoring (18 ppg) and rebounding (8).

Scott, the senior team captain, is averaging 15 points and leading the team with 4 steals per game.

“Jess Bravo has been a contributor to our press (2 steals per game) and (freshman) Heidi Cortez has filled the void of losing starter Shalini Patel to an ankle injury the last two weeks,” Newman said. “Marie Matsumoto (freshman guard) stepped up huge against Highland Park (47-42 loss) , hitting three 3-pointers to keep us in the game.”

Palatine update: First-year coach Sarah Davis says her 5-4 Palatine Pirates have players stepping up in key ways this season, particularly her the senior leaders – Frankie Henderson (6 points, 3 steals), Lexi Sabado (7 points) and Lindsay Plourde (3.5 points).

“Their leadership has helped the team in many ways, but most importantly, has brought the team closer together,” Davis said. “Molly Pieper ( junior averaging 10.3 points and 6 rebounds) has had a few breakout games this season. She had 19 points in a great team win against Boylan Catholic and 19 points against Elk Grove. She has continued to work hard to improve overall.”

Juniors Elise Martino, Halle Onyekonwu and Jas Evans have played significant minutes and continue to step up on both ends of the floor.

That group averages 12.5 points collectively with Martino adding 2 steals per game, Onyekonwu 4 rebounds per game and Evans 6 rebounds.

Freshman Grace Kline has given the Pirates significant minutes and was their leading scorer (11 points) in a 46-22 win over Buffalo Grove.

Hoffman Estates update: Coach Brad Reibel’s Hawks went 2-2 in Tom Kendall Pilgrim Classic Thanksgiving tournament as Ella Steel was named to the all-tourney team. The junior guard averaged 4.5 points and 8 rebounds in the event.

Paige Hocking has shown some scoring pop, scoring 34 points with 10 rebounds against Elgin and 14 points with 14 rebounds against Wheeling.

Wheeling update: Senior Marlena Milocheva is one of the top scorers in the area, averaging 17.9 points. She also averages 7.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists, She was named to the all-tourney team for the Maine East Thanksgiving tournament.

“Ellie Vito, Madison O’Rourke and Naomi Concklin (all freshmen) are stepping up to the challenge of playing at the varsity level,” said first-year coach Kellie Brasse, the sister of Maine West coach Deanna Kuzmanic.

Prospect update: Zoe Black, a 5-foot-11 guard, has seen her role expanding. She was the leading scorer in a 58-26 win over Buffalo Grove with 11 points (including 3-of-4 on 3-pointers). She is shooting over 30 percent from 3-point range.

“She is becoming more comfortable on the court,” said Knights coach Matt Weber. “She shows the potential to be an impact player moving forward.”