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Things fall into place for Rowland, Christian Liberty

Christian Liberty senior Jayna Rowland wasn’t exactly thrilled with her shooting the past few weeks.

So she took advantage of some time off following New Year’s Day to get some tips from her father Steve.

Steve happens to be the athletic director at the private school in Arlington Heights.

So he and his daughter headed from their Arlington Heights home to a back gym at Christian Liberty for a shooting session on Monday.

The positive results were seen in the school’s main gym on Thursday night.

Rowland (12 points) scored almost half of her team’s first-quarter points as the Chargers led 17-0 and went on to post a 48-16 victory over visiting Luther North.

The lead grew to 19-0 when freshman Jess Moriarty, who in the first quarter left the court with a bloody nose, returned for the second quarter and hit a 17-footer.

Luther North finally scored on a 3-pointer by 5-foot-4 freshman guard Jocelyn Rios with 7:04 left in the second quarter.

The visiting Wildcats (1-16) got no closer 9 points the rest of the way and the Chargers improved to 11-5 and 2-1 in the Northeastern Athletic Conference.

“We had kind of a slow offensive game against Elgin Academy on Tuesday night (in a 29-20 win),” said Jayna, whose father Steve was the Chargers’ varsity coach a year ago.

“Our offense was way better this game. We worked a lot in practice on Wednesday on movement and shooting. We weren’t making a lot of shots our last few games. So it was nice to make a few (Thursday).”

Jayna made six buckets while sophomore teammate Shelbi Hernandez connected on 5 shots from the field and also contributed 12 points with 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.

Sophomore Vivian Barclay (4 steals, 3 rebounds, 2 assists) and classmate Megan Sullivan (6 assists, 4 steals, 3 rebounds) each chipped in 7 points.

Megan Sullivan is the daughter of Chargers first-year coach Colleen Sullivan, who replaced Steve Rowland.

“Steve and I have a great working relationship,” said Colleen Sullivan, who played high school basketball at PJP II in Boca Raton, Fla. and college softball at Notre Dame. “We are still running Steve’s system, so that’s why we haven’t missed a beat and have only improved on our record with good shooting from our sophomores and freshmen.”

Colleen’s daughter Megan is one of three sophomores on the roster in addition to three freshman.

“It’s going to be a really good team the next few years,” said Jayna Rowland, who also had 7 rebounds, 3 steals and an assist.

But it was her shooting touch that stood out on Thursday.

“It was nice to see Jayna with the hot hand,” said Colleen Sullivan. “And getting into the gym early (Thursday) helped us. The girls warmed up for about an hour before the game.”

And of course, Jayna had her big warm-up session on Monday with Steve, who knows a little something about the game.

Steve played basketball, football and baseball at Karlstad High School in Minnesota. His senior class had 35 students, about 15 less than Jayna’s class at Christian Liberty.

Two girls from Jayna’s class play for the Chargers.

One of them — standout softball catcher Megan Krizanovic — hit a 15-footer to start the fourth quarter and give CLA a 34-14 lead.

The other, forward Carly Baric, missed the game due to illness.

Luther North coach Chuck Rombout said his team also had four starters missing, three who were on a school trip in Europe.

“We made a nice second quarter run (cutting the deficit to 19-10) but other than that we didn’t have an offense.”

The 16 points were the fewest the Chargers have given up this season, four less than the 20 they allowed on Tuesday at Elgin Academy.

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