Maine West is best at Hoffman tourney
Using a balanced scoring attack, Maine West's girls basketball team weighed in as the champion of the Hoffman Estates Thanksgiving tournament on Saturday night.
Junior Alisa Fallon (12 points), sophomore Rachel Kent (11 points) and junior Allison Pearson (10) helped lead the Warriors past Hampshire 49-30 to finish with 5-0 record in the six-team tourney.
Kent also pulled down 5 rebounds while freshman Angela Dugalic had 6 rebounds to go along with her 6 points, all in the second quarter.
Coach Kim DeMarigny's club connected for three 3-pointers, two by Pearson and one from junior Catherine Johnson.
Mukwonago 54, Rolling Meadows 49: Senior Kyra Spiwak led Meadows (4-2) with 13 points against Wisconsin's state runner-up of last season, and classmate Kelsey Nallon added 12 in the final game of the Brookfield Central Thanksgiving Shootout.
Senior starter Morgan Campagna missed the contest due to illness.
"Kelsey (Nallon) had the best game of her career," said Mustangs coach Ryan Kirkorsky, whose team hosts Fremd on Tueday at 7:30 p.m. "She was tough on the boards and hit some big shots."
Buffalo Grove 46, Rich East 37: With four players reaching double figures, BG (3-2) won its final game in its own Bison Classic.
Leading the offense were senior all-tourney pick Megan Gamber (11 points), freshman Macy Floro (10), senior Georgette Topalis (10) and Kendra Lee (10), a 5-foot-10 freshman who enjoyed the first double-double of her career.
Lee also pulled down 11 rebounds.
"Kendra is coming along," said Bison coach Steve Kolodziej. "She is playing almost every position on the floor, and starting to excel. She has a bright future ahead of her."
BG went ahead for good in the final quarter after trailing 25-23 at half and being tied 33-33 after three quarters.
"We really struggled from the outside this game," said Kolodziej, whose team, made 16 of 23 free throws. "We had to find other ways to score."
Gamber and junior Alyssa Floro each had a 3-pointer for BG.
The Bison led 41-36 when Gamber hit a pair of free throws to make it 43-36 with 3:29 left.
She added 2 more free throws with under 20 seconds left to make it 45-37 before Lee made one with 4.9 seconds left to account for the final score.
"Limiting Rich East to 37 points was a great team effort," Kolodziej said. "We like where we are at as a team after this tournament.
"We know where we are and what we need to improve on. I'm excited for our next opportunity and very optimistic about this team's potential."
Grayslake Central 50, Barrington 36: Freshman Taylor Thompson led the Fillies (0-5) with 14 points and 8 rebounds while senior teammates Claire Collier and Cecila Stack (11 rebounds) each chipped in 6 points.
"Taylor has had two real nice games in a row," said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro said of her 6-foot forward who had 18 points against BG on Friday. "As a team I feel like we have done nice things in every game and have gotten better. Today we stumbled a little defensively and made too many costly turnovers."
The Fillies made 14 of 51 shots (27 percent).
"We've been shooting the ball better than that," Barreiro added. "We missed a lot of shots around the basket and I think that's going to improve. I remain optimistic about this group. They don't give up and they're just going to keep getting better."
Lake Park 49, Hoffman Estates 41: Senior guard Monraia Wilson scored 12 of her game-high 17 points in the first quarter for the Hawks (0-5) in the final game of their own Thanksgiving tournament.
Kate Mangold and Tayler Williams each chipped in 8 for Hoffman which led 14-5 after one quarter and 24-17 at intermission.
Wheeling 50, Niles North 25: Senior Melissa Claver and sophomore Christina Pierini each scored 10 points for the Wildcats (3-3), who finished 3-2 in the Niles North tournament.
Junior guard Nansy Velev chipped in 7 points for the Wildcats followed by sophomore Nosa Igiehon (6), senior Shannon Kennedy (5) and senior Kourtney Schuetz (4).
Pierini connected for two 3-pointers while Kennedy and Velev had 1 apiece.