Wheeling to meet Round Lake

The new season began Tuesday night for Wheeling's state-ranked girls basketball team.

And just like much of the regular season when they won all but three of their game by more than 20 points, the Wildcats gave their fans little to worry about in the Class 4A regional opener against Lake Forest.

The Mid-Suburban League champs raced to a 19-6 advantage and led 42-14 with under two minutes in the first half en route to a 63-39 triumph.

Top-seeded Wheeling (28-1) will face No. 8 seeded Round Lake (23-4) for the Wheeling regional title on Friday night.

Wheeling played without junior starter Stephanie Kuzmanic, who has been ill and is expected back Friday.

Junior Selma Smajlovic picked up her second career start in Kuzmanic's absence.

"It's so fun," Smajlovic said. "Janelle (Cannon) has some amazing passes. It's always fun being on the floor with her."

Top scorers for the Wildcats were Ashley Wilson (25 points, 18 rebounds), Cannon (15 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks, 3 assists) and Bianca Szafarowicz (12 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals) while Bridgette Gray tossed in 6 points.

"We knew we had to make up for Stephanie not being with us," Wilson said. "She is always a big part of our starting five. But we just had to focus on getting another win. Hopefully, she'll be back Friday. Now we just have to prepare for that game."

Lake Forest (11-19) was led by senior Maggie Burke's 11 points.

"The thing about Wheeling is they have a collection of good players," said Scouts third-year coach Nick Balaban "They're not just two of three stars. They do a nice job looking out for each other. They are very unselfish and when you have their kind of talent and are unselfish, you're going to be 28-1."

Wheeling coach Shelly Wiegel liked how Smajlovic fit into her starting role.

"Selma did a nice job," the coach said. "She played good defense and looked real comfortable out there."

"Our other players fit in real well if a starter is out," Szafarowicz added. "They come in and seem to be real comfortable. And it's nice to know we should have Stephanie back for Friday."

Round Lake 48, St. Viator 41: It seemed every time you turned around, there was Labrentha Murdock driving through the lane.

The Lewis-bound senior guard would either toss up a shot or hand off a nice pass to a teammate waiting near the basket.

Murdock ended up with a game-high 16 points and some nifty assists as Round Lake improved to 23-4.

The Panthers built a 13-point lead early in the fourth quarter when Chanee Brown (8 points) hit a layup with 5:25 remaining.

But the Lions (18-12) charged back and came to within 44-41, thanks to a 3-pointer by Kelly Hendricks from the baseline and a driving back shot by Colleen Nolan (13 points) with 42 seconds left.

The Lions had a chance to tie but missed a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left.

The Panthers then got a free throw from Murdock, a rebound layin by Ashley Miller (9 points) and a free throw with 1.3 seconds left by Murdock to seal the verdict.

"We're a pretty good club at 23-4 and closed out of a lot of games," said Panthers coach Gary Edge. "So even when they made that run at us, I don't think there was any panic in our kids."

The Panthers made only 12-of-29 at the free throw line.

"We were terrible at the line," Edge said. "We shot them a little better toward the end. But we did not play well this game. I think that we can play better and we will have to on Friday night. But we shall respect this win.'

A 17-footer by Susan Hohenadel (11 points) and free throw by Jamie Blenner cut the lead to 39-36.

But Murdock made a great pass to find Amber Phillips (9 points) for an easy layup which extended the lead back to five with 1:43 left.

"That was a pretty big play when Labrentha found Amber there," Edge said.

"We played hard and St. Viator played hard," Murdock said. "They are a good team. We were off with our free-throw shooting and our shooting. If we are going to play with Wheeling, we've got to play better offensively and defensively."

Lions coach Paul Bjerkness, whose team finished at 18-11, applauded Round Lake.

"Murdock did a great job," he said. "She did a great job taking it to the basket and breaking us down. We knew it would be tough going against Murdock, Miller and Phillips.

"We are very excited defensively holding Round Lake to 48 points. But we have been averaging more points ourselves on offense. You've got to make shots and we struggled in the second quarter. We had some good looks but we hurried a little.

"These were a bunch of great kids and they had a great season. Round Lake is good and we wish them the best of luck."