Schuringa leads Timothy Christian to Lisle championship against Rosary
Timothy Christian junior girls basketball player Hannah Schuringa has played at the Lisle Cage Classic since she was a freshman.
"I remember two years before this, looking up to the person who was getting MVP for this tournament," Schuringa said.
Schuringa and the Trojans have come a long way since then.
On Monday, Timothy won the 16-team tournament for the first time since 2002 by defeating Rosary 61-37 for the title.
Schuringa was named this year's Most Valuable Player after scoring 25 points on 11-for-15 shooting for the Trojans (12-4), including 6-for-6 in her 17-point first half.
"I'm really humbled and I really couldn't do it without all of my teammates honestly. I think everyone brings a different aspect to the game," Schuringa said.
"(Winning) this is a really big deal. Going into this tournament, I don't think we thought it was capable to make it to the championship round, but after we kept winning game after game it became something that we really believed in. It gives us a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season."
Timothy freshman Maddie Drye added 12 points with two 3-pointers and junior Sureya Alex had 7 points.
Rosary junior Megan Cibulskis also earned all-tournament honors. Senior Ella Havertape led the Royals (7-8) with 8 points with junior Emily Hurst and Cibulskis adding 7 and 5 rebounds, respectively.
As the No. 7 seed, Timothy prevailed by continuing to play solid basketball that has led to 11 wins in its last 12 games.
"We've had a lot of good, good teams that we've played (here)," Timothy coach Jill Groenewold said. "It's been a great two weeks of very intense basketball and the kids have really risen to the occasion. We've just been playing awesome defense."
Schuringa's talents go well beyond her 82 points in four tournaments games. She also had 11 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 steals Monday with the first 4 points of the game on back-to-back steals.
"A pretty complete game," Groenewold said. "She has so many athletic gifts that she leads our defense. She boards well. She can run the court. I'm lucky to have her."
Leading 6-4, Timothy pulled away with a 17-4 run that included 6 points from Schuringa and baskets from Drye, Alex and Christina Swiech. The Trojans were ahead 31-15 at halftime and by at least 12 points throughout the second half.
Timothy was 13-for-30 shooting with two 3s and had 14 more shots than Rosary thanks to 8 offensive rebounds and 13 Royals turnovers.
"We need to do a better job of taking care of the ball and that's caused us a lot of problems, extra opportunities to our opponents. And then on the other end, we're struggling to score," Rosary coach John Rutter said.
"Kudos to (Timothy), but we come out of here 3-1. They're a really good team. In time we'll get there."
Rosary, which already has passed last season's win total of six, also rose to the occasion as the No. 5 seed.
"The effort that we put into this tournament, just showing what effort can get us, we might not always get results, but we're going to get better results than we did last year," Cibulskis said.
"I worked really hard at this tournament and I think it showed through my effort. We didn't get the results we wanted today, but we just worked hard."