Milestone and 'W' for Lake Zurich's Gilbertson
As evident by her career point total, Ella Gilbertson lights up scoreboards.
Tuesday night at Grayslake Central, the Lake Zurich senior guard splashed a 3-pointer, and a sign flashed. Gilbertson's kid sister, Leah, and Leah's friend Ava, sat high in the bleachers and toted a white rectangular sign reading "GO ELLA 1000." The sign featured colorful holiday lights, which sparkled brightly.
"They were prepared," Gilbertson, crediting Ava for making the sign, said with a laugh.
Lake Zurich's girls won a nonconference basketball game, 47-31, and celebrated the 1,000th point of Gilbertson's four-year varsity career. Gilbertson, who entered the game with 990 points, finished with 12, as did teammates Alayna Soukup and Brooke Wahlund, as the Bears bounced back from their loss to Stevenson on Monday night to improve to 7-3.
After the game, Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett presented Gilbertson with a souvenir photo ball. Grayslake Central coach Steve Ikenn, whose Rams fell to 8-3, gave Gilbertson the game ball.
"I told her, 'You scored your 1,000th with this one. You keep it,' " said Ikenn, noting Buffalo Grove did the same for his senior Kate Bullman, who notched her 1,000th point in the Rams' third game of the season (against Hersey) in the BG Thanksgiving tournament.
Gilbertson was sitting on 999 points when she sank her second 3 of the game with 5:52 left in the fourth quarter.
"I knew before the game that I needed 10 (points to reach 1,000), but during the game I wasn't really thinking about it," Gilbertson said. "I honestly didn't realize that I did it until I came off the bench and (teammate) Margaret (Spear) told me."
Guarded by the 6-foot-2 Bullman all game, the 6-foot Gilbertson had only 2 points at halftime. She finally got going offensively in the third, scoring off an inbounds pass under the basket and then hitting 2 free throws, before making a 3-pointer.
"She's a great defender, and she's so long," Gilbertson said of Bullman. "If you fake-shot or jump-fake, her arms are just too long. You can't really get the shot up in time. In the first half, I had to get the ball to my teammates, and they were knocking down shots."
Bullman came in averaging 19.3 points per game but scored just 11. Guarded by Gilbertson all game, the Illinois State recruit had 7 points in the first quarter, ending the period with a spin move and bank shot to beat the buzzer.
"Ella is very good at not reaching and staying in front of people, while also keeping her hand high," said Bullman, noting she and Gilbertson were once AAU teammates. "So it was hard for me to shoot in my normal rhythm. You saw me hit only one 3 and that was mostly because of her defense."
Bennett has been watching that kind of "D" from the Minnesota Duluth-bound Gilbertson for the last four seasons.
"She is so underrated on defense," Bennett said. "She's an outstanding defender for a kid as tall as she is. She's got great footwork, she knows the angles, keeps people in front of her, and makes everything hard for them."
Despite Bullman's buzzer-beating bucket, Lake Zurich led 12-9 after one quarter and went into halftime up 27-16 thanks, in part, to three 3-pointers from Spear (9 points). Wahlund, a 5-10 freshman, grabbed 9 rebounds, and her 12 points were a season high.
"She's contributing so much," said Gilbertson, who also had 7 rebounds and 4 steals. "She gets so many rebounds for us and so many putbacks. She's so long and has great positioning in the post. She's really good right now, and I think she can be an amazing player."
Bullman (8 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 blocks) was the only player to score in double figures for the Rams, who had beaten the Bears the last three years.
"We got out of our tempo a little bit," Ikenn said. "They're a really good defensive team, and we were maybe a little uncomfortable on some of our shots."