Wheeling sharpens up against Highland Park

Thursday was a practice day for all Mid-Suburban League girls basketball teams except Wheeling, which played against visiting Highland Park.

The Wildcats used the nonconference game as a tune up for today's 6 p.m. Mid-Suburban League East opener at Buffalo Grove and at the same time they picked up their sixth victory in the young season.

They made sure this one would never be in doubt after surging to a 25-3 lead after one quarter en route to a 66-41 decision.

"It was a good tune up," said first-year coach Matt Weber who has his team off to a 6-2 start. "We talked about coming out with a lot of energy."

The Wildcats sure lived up to that talk, grabbing a 13-0 advantage less than three minutes into the game.

Senior Deanna Kuzmanic scored 9 of her game-high 17 points in the first eight minutes but also played a key role in many of the Wildcats' other 7 field goals.

When she wasn't scoring, Kuzmanic was leading the Wildcats' fastbreak and finished with 9 assists.

"She's good," said Giants coach Jolie Bechtel, who has faced the Alabama-Birmingham recruit the last three seasons. "There is nothing she can't do."

The Wildcats were doing a lot of their scoring in transition.

Junior Michaela Vasey scored 7 of her 8 points in the first quarter.

"We got beat in transition too many times," Bechtel said. "It's hard to win when you give up 25 points in the first quarter."

Sophomore forward Melissa Claver finished with 13 points and 9 rebounds while senior Hailey Dammeier added 8 points with 4 assists. Senior Hannah Dobrowski scored all 10 of her points in the first half.

"We wanted to come out with a lot of intensity and get ahead right at the start," Dammeier said. "This was a good way to prepare for our game (today). It gives us momentum."

The Wildcats are without senior center Lani Greenberg, who recently underwent surgery to repair cartilage damage in her knee. Weber hopes the senior can return in mid-January.

Weber played 14 girls in Thursday's game, with Coco Yoshini (7 points), Daniella Pierini and Shannon Kennedy also making it into the scoring column.

"We talked about running the court and we ran the court," Weber said. "We shared the basketball and communicated on defense. Those are the things that you will needed to do to be a good team in our conference."

Top scorers for Highland Park (0-7) were senior Sydney Levenfeld (14 points), freshman Kirby Bartelstein (13) and junior Dahlia Cohen (10).