York wins consolation championship at Montini
It turned out to be an impressive debut at the Montini Christmas Tournament for York.
Added to the girls basketball tournament just a few weeks ago when Proviso East dropped out, the Dukes won their last three games to capture the consolation championship with a 46-32 victory against Marian Catholic on Saturday afternoon.
The Dukes' only tournament loss came Wednesday against two-time defending state champion Geneva. York (13-5) also beat Huntley and Hersey at Montini, annually one of the strongest holiday tournament fields in Illinois.
Not bad for a team missing key seniors Madison Stark and Kiah Rufus, both of whom have yet to play this season due to injuries.
"I think coming into it we were kind of nervous to see what competition we'd come up against since we're all so young," said Dukes senior Emily Rohman, celebrating her 18th birthday Saturday in addition to the consolation title. "But I feel like we showed ourselves and we showed that we can play with these high-ranked teams, and I'm just looking forward to see what we can do next in our conference and everything."
The Dukes beat Marian Catholic with good passing, notching 17 assists on 19 field goals. Junior point guard Sydney Fuglsang led the Dukes with 8 assists. Megan Juneman had 4 assists.
"We all year have been very high assists," York coach Brandon Collings said. "I think that goes to us not having a true one scorer. On any given day we can have four, five, six people put up double figures for us. So when you have that the girls want to spread the ball more, and I think our offense opens that up to it also. Everyone's making different cuts, everyone's making different reads. You make a good, hard read and a good, hard cut, you're going to get the basketball."
The Dukes pulled away from the Spartans in the second quarter, outscoring them 16-5, with junior Carley Schwartz coming off the bench to hit three 3-pointers for a team-best 9 points. Rohman put the finishing touches on the quarter with a lay-in off a Fuglsang assist to make the score 21-9.
"Carley Schwartz was knocking down her shots," Rohman said. "She's been in a slump lately, and now she's starting to come back. We really looked for her for our high numbers. It's all just ball movement and everything."
The Dukes continued to extend their lead in the third quarter, eventually taking a 35-14 lead on a Fuglsang basket off a Juneman assist. The Spartans never got closer than 13 points after that despite Marian Catholic sophomore Juliana Cutrara scoring 11 of her game-best 16 points in the fourth quarter.