Prospect, Barrington wrap up tourney titles
Ashley Sandstead Graham was on the court as an all-state guard at Buffalo Grove playing against Prospect’s Gabrielle Cottrell when the Knights’ all-stater scored a school-record 37 points on Jan. 20 of 2004.
Saturday afternoon, Graham, now the Prospect girls basketball coach, watched her own Knight equal that record.
Junior Taylor Will capped off an outstanding run through the York Thanksgiving tournament with 37 points to help lead the Knights to a 72-55 victory over Wheaton North to complete a championship in the six-team, round-robin event.
Will connected for 14 field goals, 5-of-8 free throws and four 3-pointers to break into the school record book.
She averaged 26.2 points in the five games.
“They were playing a zone so we had Taylor positioned where we thought she could attack,” Graham said. “We had her underneath the zone.”
The Knights were up 34-32 at half but outscored Wheaton North 21-8 in the third quarter to take control.
“In the second half were able to attack basket and get more open looks,” Graham said. “We executed better.”
Senior forward Catherine Sherwood followed up Friday’s 17-point game against Neuqua Valley with 19 points on Saturday while classmate Mallory Gonzalez added 9.
“We were really committed to defense,” Graham said. “There are times when I talk to the kids about not taking pride in their individual defense. The girls really showed a lot of pride in the third quarter with a gutsy effort, so that was great to see.”
One day earlier, the Knights pulled off one of the biggest wins in school history with a 54-52 triumph state-ranked Neuqua Valley.
“Coming off that emotional win, the kids were really fired up,” Graham said. “We talked about that. We said we had to stay hungry and humble and play our game.
“We talked about demanding the best out of ourselves. If you do that, winning will take care of itself. Obviously, they’ve proven that for our first five games.”
Barrington 62, Westinghouse 43: The Fillies went 5-0 to win the championship of the Bison Classic at Buffalo Grove.
“I’m really proud of the girls,” said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. “It was a great five games for us. It’s been a really balanced start. A lot of different players have stepped up and contributed in different ways.”
Angie Kirchoff (11 points, 7 rebounds), Megan Talbot (11 points, 6 rebounds), Brooke Gunderson (11 points, 4 assists) and Bailee McDonald (10 points, 5-of-8 from the field) led the way. Kelly Katis had 6 assists and 3 steals.
Gunderson and Kirchoff each had a pair of 3-pointers while Aoife Callanan had one.
“We’ve really played well as a team,” added Barreiro, who team had three all-tourney selections with Kirchoff, Talbot and McDonald.
Buffalo Grove 50, Grayslake 45: Offensively, it was the ‘Maddy and Maddie’ show for the Bison, who finished 2-3 in their own Bison Classic.
Sophomore all-tourney selection Maddie Welter tossed home 19 points while junior Maddy Callahan added 14.
Callahan was 8-of-10 at the free throw line while Kim Herzog made 6-of-8 for her 6 points.
Conant 59, St. Charles North 39: The Cougars (2-3) closed the York tournament with two straight wins as Lexi Zades scored a career-high 20 points to lead the way.
“She was driving to the basket a lot,” said Cougars coach Dan Travers of the junior guard who hit three 3-pointers in the Cougars’ first win on Friday over Wheaton North. “She is very versatile.”
Also reaching double figures was Sarah Mazurek, who scored 12 points with 2 assists.
“Sarah was steady,” Travers said. “We made adjustments to put her on the point to pressure their offense and she did a nice job at that. She gave us leadership by doing a lot of the dirty work.”
Juniors Alissa Wachal (8 points, 9 rebounds) and Haley Anderson (6 points, 6 rebounds) controlled the inside for the Cougars while Nireet Dhillon chipped in 7 points.
“It was a good team win,” Travers said. “Haley and Alissa did a good job on the boards again and Nireet is improving every day. I forget she is a sophomore sometimes because she does so much and handles the ball as point guard. She us so unselfish.”
Dee Dee Durr added 3 steals and 2 assists for Conant, which hosts Prospect on Tuesday.
“The kids competed,” Travers added. “We played with our hearts and didn’t let up. We played good defense to keep them under 40 points and we made our shots. Our bench is starting to get involved so that gives us depth to keep the pressure on the other team.”
Fenwick 61, Wheeling 60:
Junior guard Deanna Kuzmanic led Wheeling (2-4) with 26 points while Haley Dammeier added 12 and Lani Greenberg 8 at the Niles North Thanksgiving tournament.