Soane, Glenbard W. stop Glenbard N.

Glenbard West coach Mike Hofland must salivate over the potential of 6-foot-3 junior Caitlin Soane.

She gave a taste why Saturday.

Soane had 14 points and 14 rebounds in her varsity debut, powering the Hilltoppers past Glenbard North 44-36 in the first day of the Rachel Bach Memorial Tournament in Lombard.

"I was really nervous, but I thought we played well as a team," Soane said. "We were patient and we played good defense for the most part."

Soane, a slender former soccer player who sprouted up in height the last couple years, showed guard-like skills. She hit several medium-range jumpers and in the fourth quarter fed Abby Keirnan for a layup on a pretty give-and-go.

"We worked really hard in practice with the hook-and-look," Soane said, "our offense where we cut in and you hook and you look and wait for the ball and you pass it when you see someone open."

Glenbard North threw a zone at a Glenbard West team starting three juniors, but the Hilltoppers handled it with poise.

Natalie Noland knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and finished with 9 points, Keirnan hit a 3 and scored 9 and Ellen Nighbor had 6 points and 5 rebounds.

Glenbard West, which also pulled down 19 offensive rebounds, never trailed, leading 9-5 after a quarter and 17-14 at half. Its biggest lead was 12, and a Soane jumper with 3:27 left made it 39-28.

"I was really pleased with our patience," Hofland said. "It's been our Achilles' heel the last five years, is hurting ourselves, and it's something we've been preaching about in practice. With our offense we have four options to pass and the girls are buying into it. At times it's fun just to sit back and watch."

Glenbard North was playing short-handed. Junior guard Amy Falson, one of the Panthers' better shooters, banged her knee in practice this week. She was diagnosed with a meniscus tear, the recovery time unknown.

Minus Falson, freshman Arianna Callard got the starting nod.

"We missed Amy's outside shooting," Glenbard North coach John Chamberlain, "and one more player with experience. We weren't real deep to begin with."

The Panthers clawed to keep things close throughout, though.

Brianna Harn scored 12 points, her free throw with 1:06 left pulling Glenbard North as close as 41-34. Katie Wisniewski had 8 points and 5 rebounds and Teddi Govedarica 7 points.

"Defensively, I felt like we held our own," Chamberlain said, "but we gave up a lot of putbacks. When you're in a zone, that can happen and then we went a little bit of man and they're back-cutting us. Offensively, we just needed to make more layups. We got to the line (23 times), but we needed shots to go down. Glenbard West did a nice job against the zone; they got a lot of inside touches and were very patient, and then they made some outside shots."