Stevenson's size causes problems for Warren

Stevenson has quite an imposing front line, and it showed Friday night at Warren.

Six-foot-2 senior Kate Arne scored 16 points, and her junior teammate, Emory Klatt, (also 6-2, by the way) poured in 15 points and added a game-high 12 rebounds against the Blue Devils.

The visiting Patriots won 46-29 in a North Suburban Conference girls basketball contest.

"I see us getting better and better," said Arne. "We graduated two outstanding seniors (Simone Sawyer and Ava Bardic) from last year's (class 4A state championship) team, so we've definitely needed to adapt."

The senior also gave props to her running mate, Klatt.

"I couldn't ask for a better teammate," said Arne. "She's been amazing."

Shay Love led the way for Warren. The junior point guard scored 7 points and played a great all-around floor game.

And despite the defeat, Blue Devils coach John Stanczykiewicz was impressed with his squad, saying that they played "their best game of the season so far."

"When you play one of the top teams in the area," said Stanczykiewicz, "sometimes the improvement you make doesn't always show up on the scoreboard. But to hold them to under 50 points, and be in the game the entire time and have opportunities, I'm really proud of my team."

"They work hard in practice, they take what we tell them to heart, and they're looking to improve."

The Blue Devils (2-6, 1-3) were strong right from the opening tip, taking an 8-6 lead.

But Arne responded with 9 of her points in the first period as the Pats claimed a 13-8 advantage going into quarter number 2.

Stevenson (5-4, 2-2) wound up scoring 16 consecutive points between the first and second stanzas, and when Klatt made a steal then a layup, the advantage was 22-8.

"We've had that happen to us this season," said Stanczykiewicz. "We have stretches where the other team goes on a run and we have to eliminate that. You wake up the big dogs, they respond, and when that happens and they (the opponents) bear down, we have to match that."

Stevenson carried a 19-point lead throughout the third quarter, but Warren rallied in the final period.

Love had 5 of her points in the final minutes and teammates Faith Gaston and Nari Powers came up with some big buckets, but the Blue Devils couldn't get the deficit under 14 points.

Sophomore Nisha Musunuri added 10 points for Stevenson, a mark that included a perfect 5-for-5 from the free-throw line.

"It's crazy to think that this is my last year," added Arne, who has committed to play at Emory University in Atlanta, where she'll also be on a premed track.

"I've always been interested in helping other people," she said of her major of choice, "and always super interested in science and anatomy. And I love the environment (at Emory), the team is amazing and the coach is super supportive."

Powers, Gaston and Anika Youngman each finished with 5 points for Warren.

"The things that we're working on are beginning to show on the floor," added Stanczykiewicz. "I'm happy with our effort and our togetherness."

"They (Stevenson) have those two bigs inside. We're small, but we battled, and every single player on our team who had to guard those two did their best and did a great job."