York seeing carryover success

York has been wondering if its success in the girls basketball summer and fall leagues would translate to the regular season.

Through two games the answer is a resounding yes.

York moved to 2-0 on the season with a 58-32 victory against Downers Grove South at the York Thanksgiving Tournament.

"You're wondering if we're that good, I'm wondering if we're that good, to be honest," York coach Brandon Collings said. "We came out here and we dominated in our first two games, but I'm nervous stepping in until we come out and beat a good team. Then I think once we come out and beat a really good team, we play well for fourth quarters and get it done in a close game ..."

Sydney Fuglsang's three-point play to end the first quarter put the cap on a 9-0 York run and gave the Dukes a 13-5 lead. York continued in the second quarter where it left off in the first, dominating the boards and forcing 17 first-half turnovers, converting several of them into layups.

York led 36-7 at halftime after Kaitlyn Kjome's putback at the buzzer.

"Last year we struggled and we were kind of a second-half team," Kjome said. "This year we were working really hard throughout the summer to change that."

The Dukes went 16-1 in their summer league, the lone loss coming to perennial state power Fremd. They had similar success in the fall.

"York is an incredible team," Mustangs coach Lyndsie Long said. "They're very talented. They're athletic. We knew that coming in we were going to get pressured hard-core from them. And I just don't think we handled the pressure at all today."

The York lead reached 35 points in the third quarter.

"Our coach thinks that our weakness was definitely our defense, because our trap, we're still working on it," Kjome said. "It's still coming together. We have to be there to trap. Sometimes we're really late. If our trap is together we play really well, because we don't really worry about our offense as much. If we're shooting well and we're on, then we're going to have a good game."

The 6-foot Kjome finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals. Sara Krissinger added 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Fuglsang scored 9 points.

Nine Dukes scored.

Meghan Stapleton led the Mustangs (1-1) with 13 points.

The Dukes defeated Conant 71-30 Monday in the season opener.

"We hope to carry that over," Kjome said. "Yesterday we had a great game also and we (hope to) continue to do that. We will try for that."