Timothy Christian winning streak ends at six
Junior point guard Sureya Alex and her Timothy Christian girls basketball teammates have grown immensely this successful season.
Recently, the varsity grew tighter when it traveled to Arizona Jan. 7-13 for the school's annual Renew discipleship period prior to second semester.
Hole in the Rock and Red Rock state parks were memorable sites.
"We all stayed in one big house together. We would drive together in these big vans. We just kind of split off in our practice teams," Alex said. "We did kayaking and hiked. Just little activities, (sightseeing in) Sedona, or even the car rides, you're always just spending time with each other so you just kind of naturally get closer."
Although they weren't pleased with Saturday's 71-49 loss to Plainfield Central at Coach Kipp's Hoopsfest Saturday at Willowbrook, the Class 2A Trojans continued growth through the challenges of playing a Class 4A opponent.
The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for Timothy (14-5), which began the season 1-3 against predominantly bigger schools at the Brenda Whitesell Invitational at Hinsdale South and Hinsdale Central.
Alex, who had 14 points with four 3s, and Plainfield Central senior Kachae Donald were named Players of the Game for their respective teams by the annual shootout, which celebrates its 30th season.
"I think that we needed to play a bigger school," Alex said. "We've been playing good competition, but I think it's good to get tested a little bit more. We've been playing well and this was good (learning) for what we need to adjust."
Plainfield Central (11-12) blitzed Timothy with an impressive display of outside shooting that included 10 3-pointers. Even with Timothy quickly switching from a man-to-man to zone defense, Plainfield Central finished 27-for-55 shooting with a 15 for 29 first half.
Timothy hung close 39-30 at halftime but then were outscored 21-7 in the third quarter. Twenty-five turnovers didn't help.
"That's not been our quarter all year," Timothy coach Jill Groenewold said. "I don't know if it's relaxing or adjustments that we make. It takes a while for us to get into that. We had some passing mistakes. We just couldn't get into an offensive flow. They're a very aggressive team. They did a nice job of denying into the post and they put a lot of pressure, face-guarding Sureya."
Timothy junior Hannah Schuringa added 12 points and freshman Grace Roland added 10. Junior Sarah Carstensen and Roland had 6 and 5 rebounds, respectively.
Plainfield Central guard Tykara Harrison had 22 points with three 3s. Donald had 18 points with four 3s, which included 15 of the Wildcats' first 31 points.
Timothy's varsity basketball teams switch off Renew trips, and last season was the boys team's trip to Arizona. Because the trip is planned during the spring of the previous school year, Alex and Schuringa did not participate as varsity freshmen in the 2018 trip to the Dominican Republic.
"(Renew) was one of the things that we've been looking forward to since summer league, even last year," Alex said.
"We saw the (boys) presentation on it and it looked super fun and we knew we would be doing similar stuff," Carstensen added. "I was just so excited and also just to spend time with the team and serve and play basketball at the same time."
The team practiced twice and defeated Gilbert (Arizona) Christian 50-41 Jan. 10. Their service work included visiting homeless shelter St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix after working at Breakthrough Urban Ministries in Chicago before the trip.
"That was just beneficial serving together and getting out of our comfort zone and kind of pushing each other, just getting used to each other and showing God's work through us," Carstensen said.
"I know I grew closer with every single girl," Alex said. "Even though today was a rough game, it shows in practices with trust and just knowing each other better."
The Wildcats made 7 of their first 11 shots with two 3s to lead 17-5. The Trojans closed within 6 points twice in the second quarter but both times the Wildcats responded with baskets on each of their next two possessions. Free throws from Roland and Schuringa cut the deficit to 41-33 early in the third quarter before the Wildcats pulled away.
"They just had really good shooters. We were trying to work on closing out. We've been practicing it," Carstensen said. "We did make some adjustments but in the third quarter there were just some mental errors and their shooters just kept making it. I think it was good for us to get used to playing against knock-down shooters like that."