advertisement

Pikulyk, Addison Trail notch victory over Fenton

Diamond Pikulyk's Addison Trail girls basketball teammates were starting to have fun without her. On Tuesday she joined in the fun.

Pikulyk scored 14 points with 4 rebounds in limited minutes, and the Blazers cruised to a 55-31 defeat of Fenton in the final game of the Fenton/Addison Trail Thanksgiving Tournament. The victory clinched second place for the Blazers (3-1) behind Lane Tech in the five-team, round-robin tournament.

"I feel good," said Pikulyk, a senior post player who missed the season's first two games because of an injury suffered in practice. "Playing yesterday against Elgin, I got my feet wet a little bit. I came out tonight and knew what I had to do. I know my team depends on me a lot."

Addison Trail got off to a great start in its own gym, scoring the game's first 11 points and taking a 13-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Fenton cut the lead back to single digits briefly in the second quarter on sophomore Ashley Lira's short jumper off the glass. But the Blazers' Nicci Scorza rushed right back downcourt for the score, and the margin remained in double digits the rest of the game.

"We're on a little bit of a roll here getting ready for conference on Tuesday against Hinsdale South," Blazers coach Rob Schader said. "I thought our tempo was much better tonight. I thought our defense was better. We had some spurts where we let them penetrate off the ball on us, didn't deny wing entry, a couple of flash cuts, but overall our defense was much better. Our rebounding was much better too."

The fast start is a great boost of confidence for the Blazers.

"I think a lot of teams going into conference are underestimating us, so I think we have a lot to prove," Pikulyk said. "So I look forward to it."

"We've got six girls back this year that played that played a ton of minutes," Schader added. "They should have had that confidence anyway, but they didn't early on. But they're starting to get back into the groove of things."

It helps to have Pikulyk in the post again.

"She's back and playing well," Schader added. "Much better tonight than yesterday. She was a little sloppy last night, which is kind of what we expected. But she didn't shy away from contact tonight or last night, which was good."

"I realized I was the biggest girl out there, so I took advantage of the advantage I had," Pikulyk added. "I just attacked the boards, finished easy shots down low."

Jasmin Mehmeti and Vincenza Zaccaro added 9 points apiece for the Blazers.

Senior Krysta Wilson led Fenton (0-4) with 9 points.

"Our kids have to play hard, and they did," Fenton coach Tim Anderson said. "That's where we're playing from. And I have to keep a smile on my face because they do. We're still looking for where we're going to get our points, and we're getting closer to figuring it out.

"The thing we weren't ready for, they just pushed it down the floor on us, and we didn't make the adjustment. There was nothing I was going to say in a timeout that was going to change anything. That's where it got a little crazy there. You take that out of the equation and I thought we hung with them. I'm happy with how we're doing."

Follow Orrin on Twitter @Orrin_Schwarz

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.