Green, Downers Grove North stifle Hinsdale South offense

Downers Grove North was determined not to let Hinsdale South guard Sydney Kopp beat the Trojans by herself.

Downers Grove North that well enough to walk away with a 45-37 nonconference victory on Friday night in Downers Grove.

"Our girls did a good job of sticking to the game plan tonight, and that was make things tough for Kopp and come what may at that point," Trojans girls basketball coach Stephan Bolt said. "We stuck to the game plan, executed and it's a nice win for us. Moving forward, we've got a little bit of momentum going, we're playing a little bit better, starting to do some things on the floor."

"We practiced all week for this, just because she's such a high scorer," Trojans senior guard Jaida Green said. "We started out a little slow, but I think that we held her where we wanted to, and we came out with a win, which was good."

Kopp scored 18 points, but that was still below her season average.

"They did a lot of things to disrupt our offense and disrupt our scoring," Hornets coach Brett Love said. "Syd usually scores a lot of points. She really didn't get as many shots as she needed to get for us to be successful."

Terri Jackson added 12 points, but it wasn't enough for the Hornets.

"Terri stepped up and knocked down some shots, which was huge for us," Love said. "But none of the other players made baskets, made layups, things like that, which hurt us."

Green also hurt the Hornets (14-6). The 6-foot-2 senior guard, a Penn State recruit, scored 17 points, 11 of them in the fourth quarter.

"They are a good team, got one of the best players in the state, and we went out and competed," Love said. "It also shows us where our weaknesses are as well, something we can practice on and work on."

The Trojans (12-5) had a slow start to the season, but they like how their January has gone so far.

"We've just been learning as the games have been going on," Green said. "We have a lot more even scoring now. Early in the season it was a lot of one or two people scoring a lot. Now that everyone is confident and knocking down shots, we're really going in the right direction."

Brigid Miller knocked down four 3-point shots to finish with 12 points, and five other Trojans also scored.

"They're playing with some confidence, they're sharing the ball, they're trusting each other," Bolt said. "... We've got some kids who can shoot, and that's what we've talked about, just sharing the basketball and trusting when it's your time and you're ready to shoot it to knock down some shots."

Follow Orrin on Twitter @Orrin_Schwarz