Harvest Christian wins, will meet Montini for title
With a new coach, a new system, and an influx of new players the Harvest Christian girls basketball team has been going through an adjustment period.
However, it's hardly been noticeable going by the opening week results. The host Lions ran their record to 4-0 on Friday night at the Bill Knox Thanksgiving Invite with a 64-47 win over Freeport.
The Class 2A Lions will meet Montini, the No. 2 ranked team in the Daily Herald Top 20 and third place finisher in Class 4A last season, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday for the tournament championship.
One of the biggest adjustments for the Lions has been in the backcourt. Elena Porrata, a transfer from Palatine where she was a 2-year starter at point guard and made the Daily Herald's All-Area team last season, has joined Harvest All-State senior point guard Alyssa Iverson. They are now sharing the floor and switching between the point and shooting guard.
The two seem to have it all worked out as they combined for 39 points in Friday's win. Iverson led the way with 23 points and Porrata added 16 points, including four 3-pointers.
Iverson has welcomed the addition of Porrato.
"It's nice to be able to switch off back and forth," Iverson said. "Other teams have to choose who they want to focus on. When she's hitting her shots it frees me up to drive to the basket and when I'm hitting my shots it frees her up. We are starting to build a nice chemistry with the whole team."
Porrata has adjusted well to the new role.
"It's been awesome coming here," Porrata said. "The school has been phenomenal. The girls have been great. There is a whole culture created here that has made it easy to adapt. Playing with Alyssa has been unbelievable. She is just an awesome player. It's just great sometimes to sit back and watch the way she plays. We kind of decided early on that it would work best if we just switched back and forth between point guard. We are really learning to play off of one another."
Porratta had 11 points in the third quarter as Harvest increased a 28-22 halftime lead to 46-31 heading into the fourth quarter.
"Elena has definitely become a key piece to the puzzle," first-year Harvest coach Jeff Boldog said. "She is able to relieve a lot of the pressure off Alyssa. Those two being interchangeable at the 1 and 2 spots is a great thing to have."
The Lions' defense played a big part in the win with 29 turnovers.
"That's something we have focused a lot on," Boldog said. 'We want to be relentless for 32 minutes on the defensive end."
Sophomore Maddy Martin added 12 points for the Lions.