Aurora Christian loses leading scorer

​In his first year as head coach at Aurora Christian, Burney Wilkie watched things go about as good as he could have hoped as the Lady Eagles won 7 of their first 9 games.

Kirsten Madsen was as responsible for that success as anyone, leading the Eagles with a 14.9 scoring average on impressive shooting percentages of 41 from 3-point range, 45 from the field and 79 at the line.

Wilkie said Madsen also had become the team's best defender.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, near the end of practice on Friday Madsen went down with an injured knee. After getting it examined the worst fears were realized, a torn ACL that ends her junior year.

"Will we miss Kirsten a lot," Wilkie said. "Not just her scoring and defense, but we will miss most her leadership on and off the floor. She is someone that the girls look to for guidance."

Despite such a tough loss, Wilkie said the team's goals remain the same.

In their first game without Madsen on Saturday, Aurora Christian edged Indian Creek, 44-42. Gabby Galbato led with 16 points, Natasha Brown had 13 points and 17 rebounds, and Carey Tokars - who took Madsen's place in the starting lineup - added 10 points and 5 assists.

"I met with the other girls, and they are committed to making sure we reach our goals," Wilkie said. "Just because we have lost Kirsten for the year, doesn't mean we are changing our goals. We are still looking to win a regional, win a sectional and see what happens after."

Frazier on fire: As good as Batavia junior Hannah Frazier has been to start the year - a 24-point scoring average through 10 games - Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said there's even better days ahead.

"I don't know if I saw it coming but I see where she can be and I still think she's only scratching the surface," Jensen said. "I don't think she even knows where she can be. I think she's such a special player. There's part of her game that nobody has seen yet because of the nature of the we have to play right now."

Jensen spoke of Frazier's skills away from the basket. Anyone who has watched her play since stepping into the Batavia starting lineup as a freshman knows how hard she is to handle in the post.

Jensen said he's seen even more skills in practice, and on cue in her next game after Jensen said that Frazier stepped outside and sank a 3-point basket.

"I think she handles the ball and can take it in from the outside," Jensen said. "We haven't had that opportunity yet. She has worked on her 3-point shooting. If we could put somebody in her place inside she could be one of our shooters from outside. I think at the next level she'll be somebody who plays in and out because she's so athletic."

Already with four 30-point games and with double-doubles in the first seven games of the season, Frazier said she's just as glad to see her team play well in several games than her individual success.

Batavia evened its record at 6-6 with a 48-31 win over Thornwood on Monday behind another double-double - 17 points, 11 rebounds - from Frazier.

"I'm excited," Frazier said. "There's always room to improve but so far it's been good and my confidence has been really high and a I think a lot that has to do with how well the team has been playing."

Frazier pointed to the work with her club team Midwest Elite with helping her play. Batavia graduated the area's top scorer Liza Fruendt, and now it has this year's leader in scoring with Frazier, though as the season progresses there figures to be plenty of competition for that honor from the likes of Nichole Davidson at St. Charles North and Katie Claussner at St. Charles East, among others.

"A lot of it was playing with high level club really helped and I feel having those two years of varsity basketball under my belt really helps," Frazier said.

Another similarity Jensen sees between his stars the past two years is that both players are strong athletically for their positions so that when they take contact while going up for a shot they don't get to the line like players of slighter build.

"Unfortunately because of her strength she gets hammered and she doesn't get affected like other girls," Jensen said. "She has to play through some contact that others don't have to."

Freshmen continuing to impress: St. Charles East freshman Sara Rosenfeldt got her first look at guarding Frazier on Friday, and she helped the Saints to a 57-46 win with 12 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals.

Saints coach Lori Drumtra credited both Rosenfeldt and her guards for making the entry passes difficult with holding Frazier to 14 points.

"We talked about playing physical, she is a very physical player," Drumtra said. "We tried to match that. The key too was putting pressure on their perimeter players and making that pass hard. There were times on our bench I thought she was really open but I don't think they can see it because of the pressure we put on. We talked about making her earn everything she gets. She's a great player, hard to stop."

Unfortunately for Rosenfeldt, in her next game Saturday against Geneva she got into early foul trouble trying to guard Grace Loberg and spent much of the first three quarters on the bench.

While Rosenfeldt was on the court she made several impressive plays, including back-to-back steals on a full-court press that helped the Saints trim a 14-point deficit to 5 in the fourth quarter. She finished with 9 points.

Geneva freshman point guard Margaret Whitley, who scored 20 points in Geneva's win over the Saints, plays on the same Lady Lightning travel team with Rosenfeldt.

"She played really hard," Whitley said. "I thought she played great and I was real proud of her. Sara and I are really good friends. We work together in the summer all the time."

Meanwhile Whitley just keeps turning heads. Geneva coach Sarah Meadows praised her leadership skills Saturday.

"You see it at the top of the key," Meadows said. "She'll put the ball on her hip and tell kids where she wants them to go. That alone is showing her leadership. I say this all the time - she looks more comfortable and makes better decisions every game."

Still sidelined: Meadows isn't sure when Janie McCloughan will return from a concussion suffered in the final seconds of a win at St. Charles North on Dec. 4. Meadows said McCloughan has had trouble concentrating at school.

"I'm sure this band isn't helping her at all," Meadows said of the electric atmosphere for the girls/boys doubleheader Saturday at St. Charles East. "We need her healthy so I don't want her to come back too early and then we're back at square one."

Stephanie Hart helped cover for McCloughan's loss Saturday, setting up Loberg for several lay-ins inside with pinpoint passing.

"She's amazing," Loberg said after scoring a season-high 20 points. "She makes my job 10 times easier. I love having her and Margaret on the court. They do a great job."

"Real nice passes. That's what you get from her. She can drive, she can beat a kid and then she's so smart on the basketball court that she knows where the help is coming from and can dish," said Meadows, who also praised Hart's defense.

"She looked real solid tonight defensively. She stepped up and did a nice job on (Kyra) Washington."

Scheduling snafu: The Saints were sky-high after winning at Batavia Friday, but then had less than 24 hours to get ready for Geneva on Saturday.

"I'm not crazy about the back-to-back but everybody in conference has to do it," Drumtra said. "It's kind of hard to plan the week with the back-to-back. You don't want the kids to look past the first game. In all fairness they (Geneva) had it too. But it's hard to play two big games like that back-to-back."

A-plus for effort: In a 57-43 loss to Aurora Central Catholic on Monday, a game Rosary trailed by double digits almost the entire second half, you would never have guessed it watching Royals point guard Quincy Kellett.

The senior led her team with 17 points. The Royals couldn't get anything going without her.

But it wasn't just Kellett's stats that stood out. It was her effort, playing harder than anyone on each end of the court, despite the score.

"That's every game, that's every sport," Rosary coach Jessie Terrell said. "She's a national champion wrestler, she's a Division I soccer player. That's Quincy. You put her in an atmosphere when there's competition and she's going to win. That's her mentality. We really need that fire to catch with some of our underclassmen. Right now they are jut a little bit scared with their age. They have to see the relentlessness it takes to play at this level."