Jurkovic, Kampschroeder a winning combination for Naperville North
Sadie Jurkovic and her Naperville North teammates wanted to start the new year off with a bang and they did just that on Thursday night.
The 6-foot-4 Huskies senior scored early and often and finished with a personal-best 22 points as Naperville North knocked off visiting Waubonsie Valley 56-43 in the teams' first action of 2018.
Jurkovic opened the night's scoring with a layup off a feed from Greta Kampschroeder, then added a pair of short jumpers for an early 8-5 lead. The veteran center added three more field goals in the second quarter as the Huskies took a 21-13 lead at halftime.
"It was probably one of my better games so far," Jurkovic said after helping her team improve to 6-6 on the year and 2-2 in the DuPage Valley. "I'm happy to start 2018 off strong."
She said the fastbreak buckets just happened in the flow of the game, in part because the Huskies attacked the Warriors' pressure defense and found their post player often open down the floor.
"They saw me up the floor in the press and they were like, 'There she is, give it to her right away, she's open.' It wasn't one of those things that we had to set up … it was just pushing the ball."
Huskies coach Jason Dycus was thrilled to see his big player finish off her chances. With her presence inside, coupled with Kampschroeder - the team's star freshman who had 21 points and 11 rebounds - the Huskies were just too much for a young Waubonsie Valley team to handle.
"She had a great night and I'm happy for her," Dycus said of his senior. "I'm very proud of her. She's been a huge asset to our program; somebody I root for because she's such a great kid. It was nice that our girls were looking for her and she finished her shots, which is the key.
"I talked to her in practice about slowing down, especially up top, because no one's going to get to her. I told her to slow down and just finish it."
For the 7-10 Warriors, sophomore Grace Setter had 12 points, freshman Lauren McKnight added 11 - including a trio of 3-pointers - and Gina Palasz finished with 10.
"I think we made improvements for sure," Setter said. "It's just kind of frustrating when we don't quite get the win. We were making shots and doing a better job running some plays, but I think we just struggled a little on defense. We've got to keep working on D."
First-year Warriors coach Brett Love, whose team has already far surpassed last year's win total, is happy with the strides his team continues to make.
"It was tough because we'd have a good two- or three-minute spurt and then they hit us with some different shots, inside and out," Love said. "We want to continue to get better. That's the main goal right now.
"Of course, you want to be able to compete with the teams in this conference and we want to make a name for ourselves and be consistent. We've got to put together four quarters and be consistent."