Banner night for Glasgow, Rolling Meadows
The curtain fell on Thursday night.
Then, it was raised.
It fell to unveil two banners on the east wall of the gymnasium — one to signify Rolling Meadows guard Jackie Kemph winning the 2012-13 Gatorade Illinois Player of the Year award, the other a team picture to honor the Mustangs’ Class AA state girls basketball runner-up finish in the same season.
Then it was raised — figuratively, at least — on the Mustangs’ 2013-14 season. And taking center stage was senior guard Alexis Glasgow.
Less than four minutes into Lake Zurich Turkey Thriller game against Cary-Grove, the Northwestern recruit scored 8 points to join Kemph in Rolling Meadows’ 1,000-point scoring club.
Glasgow finished with a team-high 19 points as the Mustangs posted a 75-59 triumph over a Trojans squad that fought hard to the end, despite falling behind 26-5 in the first quarter.
“My teammates have improved my game to help me do this,” said Glasgow, who has 1,012 points one game into her fourth varsity season. “Not only has our team improved, but it helped my game improve.
“The athletic director (Jim Voyles) mentioned it (1,000th point) to me but I had no idea when it happened. Jackie gave me some nice feeds for easy layups and I was able get it early. It was nice because then I was able to focus on the game. It’s just kind of a fun thing.”
It was a fun night all-around for the Mustangs.
Kemph finished with a whopping 15 assists to go along with her 17 points while Jenny Vliet got rolling in third quarter, when she scored 11 of her 15 points along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
Elizabeth Vasilogambros provided a big spark off the bench with 13 points,
“I’ve been playing with these girls for a long time so I’m comfortable when I get out there,” Vasilogambros said. “You kind of feed off their energy. They make such great passes and it all comes together at the end.”
Cary-Grove played well at the end, scoring 52 of its 59 points in the final three quarters.
Junior guard Katie Barker earned the game’s scoring honors with 22 points, getting 20 in the second half with 4 3-pointers.
“We kind of came into the game wanting to lose by less than 30,” said the 5-foot-10 Barker, who scored 19 points in each of the Trojans’ first two wins.
“We knew they were better than us and we just wanted to play hard. Before the game, we talked about competing. We knew we didn’t have any pressure on us. They are nationally ranked and No. 2 in the state (Class 4A).”
Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert liked his team’s finishing kick.
“Make no mistake, their (Meadows) first 10 girls are exceptional,” Saffert said. “I just wanted my team to compete. There’s no doubt they are light years ahead of us but you can still compete. I thought we did that in the second half.”
Abby Glaysher added 12 points for the Trojans.
Teammates Karisa Wilczynski, Abby Jakubicek and Chrissy Sopchyk each added 6 apiece.
Barker also had 6 rebounds while Glaysher and Olivia Miller collected 4 each.
“Katie is obviously our main scorer,” Saffert said. “But we feel there is no drop-off with our other 12 girls.
Andy (Donaldson, defensive coach) and I decided that we’d play them all in waves of five. I think they’ll be really tough down the road. I wouldn’t look forward to going up against that. Katie got all her points playing about half of the game.”
Kirkorsky, whose team comes back to play at Lake Zurich today, was able to give his starters some rest as 12 Mustangs made it onto the floor.
“We told the girls all these special things (banner ceremonies and Glasgow’s 1,000 points) would happen, and that they were deserving,” Kirkorsky said. “But I was impressed how they just came out and weren’t distracted. They were just energized and ready to play.”
Katie Shewmon came off the bench to grab 8 rebounds while Ashley Montanez had 5. Sami Kay handed out 3 assists.
“We’re asking kids to step up in different roles,” Kirkorsky said. “I was extremely pleased with Katie Shewmon and Elizabeth Vasilogambros.”
But early on, all eyes were Glasgow (8 rebounds, 2 assists) in her attempt to reach the magic scoring number.
“It’s a great honor for Alexis,” Kirkorsky said. “And what I think was even more impressive was the typical entire floor game she played.”
The Mustangs would like to shore up their defense.
“Defensively and on the boards we have to improve,” Kirkorsky said. “But there are so many things we asked the kids to do in the off-season that they did in this game. And we look forward to that continuing.”
Saffert was sure aware of the Mustangs’ offense.
“They deserved all the fanfare before the game,” Saffert said. “It’s easy to just become a fan, and watch them play. Last year, I was disappointed. They were good but we shouldn’t have lost by 50 points. We didn’t compete. This year, we didn’t let the game get away and we competed the last three quarters.”