Hoffman Estates gets past Conant
Conant’s girls basketball team celebrated seniors night on Thursday.
But the Cougars also made the visiting Hoffman Estates seniors feel right at home, as Conant coach Dan Travers handed out flowers to each of the Hawks’ seniors.
“We were excited to play them on their senior night,” said the Hawks’ Jada Stotts. “We know they are very kind. For them to honor us on their senior night is awesome.”
The Hawks played some pretty awesome defense, leading 14-8 after a quarter and holding the hosts to 1 point in the second quarter for a 22-9 lead at the break.
Hoffman (15-7, 4-4) increased the lead in the second half and left with a 47-32 victory in the Mid-Suburban West match.
On a night devoted to seniors, it was sophomore Destinee Young who stole the scoring and rebouding show. The 5-foot-10 forward tossed in game-high 17 points with 14 rebounds and 3 steals.
“Destinee was really cleaning everything off the glass,” said Hawks coach Mike Nocella “Precious Ogunleye (8 points, 7 rebounds) played one of her better games and sophomore Becca Stoczynski (5 points, 6 rebounds) did another good job off the bench.”
Conant (13-10, 2-6) started off with a 3-0 lead when senior Alyssa Rawleigh hit a 3-pointer that was quickly answered with a 3 by Hoffman’s Mary Pettit (4 assists, 1 steal) for a 3-3 tie.
The only other first-half points the Cougars would score came on a another 3-pointer by Rawleigh, a driving layup by Kelly Lomas and a second-quarter free throw by Lomas.
“Our offense isn’t where it should be right now so we are making up for it on the defensive side,” said Stotts, a senior who scored 11 points with 4 steals, 2 assists and 2 rebounds. “We’re getting back to communicating like we were earlier in the season. This was a big game for us to get back on track for a big game next Tuesday against Barrington on our senior night.”
Travers knows one Hawks senior quite well.
“I’ve been seeing Jada Stotts for four years,” he said of the talented four-year starter who will play volleyball for Austin Peay. “She is a classy young lady.”
“We really respect Conant,” Stotts said. “I’ve really enjoyed playing against them all four years. I’ve been going at it with a lot of their girls in feeder basketball for six years They are really a good group of girls.”
The Cougars were led by Rawleigh’s 12 points while Lomas added 8.
Rawleigh, Lomas, Kate Kauffold, Hailey Andress, Nina Piscopo, Lindsay Fillingim and Jenna Heneghan were the Conant seniors honored before the game.
“I thought our seniors came out with the right attitude,” Travers said. “Hoffman is a good team. They were too big and physical for us. We kept battling in the second half and we moved the ball better. We also improved our zone offense.”
Hawks senior Tanya Skworch handed out 3 assists, including a nifty one on a fastbreak when she took a nice lead pass from Young and then flipped it ahead to Ogunleye for a layup and 34-14 lead in the third quarter.
“We’ve been talking about controlling the tempo of the game which we did not do against Fremd on Tuesday,” Nocella said. “I thought we did this time.
“Dan (Travers) does a good job with his kids. You know it won’t come easy and you will always get battle.”
And if you’re a senior for the opponent, you’ll get a little recognition, too.