Rockton Hononegah rolls past South Elgin
With only one returning starter, South Elgin knows it might suffer some early season growing pains.
The schedule makers didn't take it easy on the Storm, who debuted all those new faces against state power Rockton Hononegah Wednesday night.
The Indians exploited that inexperience in a big way at the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving tournament, hosted by Huntley.
Rockton Hononegah's full-court pressure overwhelmed the Storm, who turned the ball over on seven of their first eight possessions. The Indians scored the first 21 points on their way to an 83-38 victory.
"To open up against a team like that, I told them there's no losing on a night like this," said Storm coach Dan Mandernack, whose team graduated 98 percent of their scoring. "You either are going to win or you are going to learn. They (Hononegah) are a downstate caliber type team. You can't lose this game, you can just learn."
The Indians (1-0) only have two returning starters themselves - but one of them is Jordan King.
The junior, with offers from Wisconsin and Iowa, among others, scored 18 points in the opening quarter.
She repeatedly beat the Storm off the dribble and scored inside.
"The nice thing about Jordan is she's our best player and our hardest worker," Hononegah coach Cecil Kennigton said. "Great kid to coach. She's got a big-time future."
Rockton Hononegah used crisp ball movement, backdoor cuts and fastbreak layups to get one high percentage shot after another. The Indians shot 14 for 20 from the field in the first quarter and made 18 of their 21 attempts from 2-point range in the first half.
As lopsided as the final score looks, it didn't tell whole story.
King scored her game-high 31 points in about 12 minutes of court time. Kennigton substituted liberally, and in the limited time King and her fellow starters were on the court together, they outscored the Storm 52-8 on a pace to score 139 points.
"The seven, eight years I've been involved with girls basketball, she's (King) right there with (Huntley grad) Ali Andrews as far as the best girls player I've seen," Mandernack said.
Rockton Hononegah led 35-4 after the first quarter and 46-7 early in the second. The Storm (0-1) turned the ball over 15 times in the first quarter and only got off 3 field goal attempts.
"They definitely threw the first punch," Mandernack said. "That's a new level of press right there. They are strong, they are fast, it was hard to meet some of their athleticism."
The Indians took off their press and the Storm began to get some better looks. They trailed 77-25 after three quarters but won the fourth, 13-6.
"We made some adjustments especially when the press was off," Mandernack said. "We were able to get into our stuff a little."
Senior Catora Brown came off the bench to lead the Storm with 15 points. She scored their only points in the first quarter, hit a trio of 3-pointers in the second half while also grabbing 4 rebounds.
"Catora, what a great kid," Mandernack said. "Last year didn't get much playing time but attitude great, worked hard, speed and agility training, got on a travel team. I told her I'm her biggest fan. Her shot looked good, really fast, aggressive. She didn't get a lot of chances and she knows she's a senior and this is her chance. I really look for good things from Catora."
Sophomore Megan McClure added 5 rebounds while Alexis Roberts tallied 6 points for the Storm who have another tough opponent Friday against Homewood-Flossmoor.
"Their body language was good, their attitudes are great," Mandernack said. "I told them at halftime to keep battling. We'll be all right."