January 2008 Archives

The Chicago Sky has named Crete-Monee as its girls basketball Team of the Week.
The Warriors are 11-10 under first-year head coach Mike Pope, an improvement over last year’s 4-17 record. There are only seven girls on Crete-Monee’s roster, six upperclassmen and one sophomore.
The Warriors will be honored during a Sky game this summer.

The Windy City quarterfinal sites and times have been announced.
All four games will be played Wednesday, Jan. 30.
AT CRANE
Hope vs. Lane Tech, 5:30
Von Steuben vs. Morgan Park, 7
AT SIMEON
Marshall vs. Young, 5:30
Bogan vs. Washington, 7

For those of you keeping score, the Young vs. Marshall game will be the third meeting between the two teams this season. The season series is tied 1-1, with Young winning the first contest on its home floor and Marshall taking the second one at Marshall. It's odd that such a big matchup in this tournament is coming in a quarterfinal round, but that's the way the bracket works.

Also, got an e-mail today about Trinity guard Monica Albano. She's just surpassed 1,200 points for her career and has 200 assists and 200 steals. Congratulations to Monica!

The GCAC announced today the three Players of the Year in the Red, White and Blue divisions.

*Loyola senior Ashley Thomas, who is headed to Wisconsin, picked up the honor in the Red Division. In talking with her coach, Tanya Johnson, after Loyola's 48-30 win at Von Steuben on Tuesday night, Thomas is probably playing at her best right now. Johnson was beaming with the way Thomas has been playing lately.

*Maria senior Mishae Miles earned the POY honor in the White Division and racks up a lot of points for the Mystics.

*Junior Shauneia McPhearson of Holy Trinity was named the POY in the Blue. McPhearson is having another solid year and should help Holy Trinity do well in the postseason.

It's never a story we want to write. But as reporters, we have to do stories on the bad side of athletics.
Chicago Public Schools Director of Sports Administration Calvin Davis today suspended six Marshall players after they were involved in a fight with Milwaukee Vincent during the MLK Dream Classic Sunday afternoon at Young.
Those players are: Massachusettes recruit Sarah Rogers, Terranika Reynolds, Laquentra Lemons, Raven Gary and Benita Henry. They will sit for one game, Wednesday's first round Windy City playoff game with Julian. Alexis Forrest, who comes off the bench for Marshall, will have to sit for two games because technically she was one of the players that instigated the fight to begin with.
No one wanted to cover something like that. What makes it worse is that it was during an event that celebrated the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who preached non violence.

There was another sophomore who had a career night this week. Fenwick's Tricia Liston scored a career high 37 points in a 81-74 win at Marist and was a perfect 16-of-16 from the free-throw line. Her point total matches the career high of her father, Sonny, who scored his career high of 37 also as a Fenwick Friar.

Tuesday night Montini sophomore Michala Johnson scored 24 points in the Broncos' 75-33 win over Aurora Central. But her 17th point was the 1,000th of her career — and she still has two years left in high school so it seems like she's well on her way to 1,000 more and then some. Johnson really is one of the best sophomores in Illinois.

Morgan Park Academy is the Chicago Sky team of the week. The Warriors have 10 underclassmen and four upperclassmen. Most notably, Liana Akkawi had her 1,000th rebound Jan. 8 against Illinois Lutheran. The team also has a 3.3 collective GPA. The Warriors are 13-7 and are in Class 1A, but are playing 2A and 3A teams.

Clarence Notree of the Chicago Public League announced Tuesday afternoon that Hope will play Bogan Friday at 5:30 p.m. at the Salvation Army's new facility at 69th and Morgan. Notree said the Public Schools' Office of Sports Administration will pick up the tab for the facility rental.
The Windy City Central title will be on the line Friday night. Hope beat Bogan in double overtime in the first meeting of the two teams last month.

Hope is the new No. 1 team this week. The Eagles are winning despite illness and injury, according to assistant coach Janelle Spearmon.
Center Ashley Brown jammed a few of her fingers during a game last week and should return Wednesday against Washington.
Melissa Thompson has been out since last Friday with a severe knee sprain and might miss three to four weeks. She is the Eagles’ third leading scorer.
And Dawn Luster has battled the flu and then pneumonia. Spearmon said Luster will be able to practice Tuesday.
In the meantime, Spearmon said Jasmen Stackhouse has really stepped up to fill in those gaps and take over a scoring and leadership role.
So where is the ridiculousness? Here’s a No. 1 team that is one of the top programs in the Public League year in and year out. They’ve won a state title (Class A, 2003) but they still don’t have their own gym and they have to share space with other programs at Washington Park Field House. The Eagles have their last Windy City Central game with Bogan on Friday.
Or do they?
The game is on hold. The gym floor at Washington Park is being repaired. Spearmon, Hope athletic director Johnny Davenport and Public League girls basketball coordinator Clarence Notree are trying to find another venue. The game might be on Friday or it might be on Thursday, depending on the site.
Stay tuned.

Dorothy Gaters at Marshall is not just the girls basketball coach but is the athletic director, too. So when you think about all the work it takes to do those two jobs, plus organize an event like the MLK Dream Classic it can give you a migrane.
Gaters is happy with the way the 60-team field of both boys and girls teams is shaping up. But there is a hitch -- a big one.
She needs a primary sponsor.
The Classic is scheduled for this coming three-day weekend (Saturday through Monday), but it would be nice if a big sponsor came though before then.
That would relieve the headache better than any Advil.

Warren's 6-foot, 2-inch forward, Lory Shaw, who has complemented the 6-5 Sarah Boothe in the post this season, made an oral commitment Tuesday night to play basketball at Wisconsin-Green Bay. When asked if she would become a Packers fan, Shaw was adament on her football team of choice. "Bears forever," she said.
The No. 8 Blue Devils are 17-1 after their 36-31 win Tuesday night over Lake Zurich.

The Chicago Sky has named Wheaton Warrenville South as its girls basketball team of the week.
The Tigers, who are 9-5, earned the honor after rallying around a player who suffered a tragedy on Nov. 19 when her mother died in a car accident. The players helped their teammate through the loss by donating gift cards and dinners to the family.
WW South will be honored during a Sky game this summer.

Evanston coach Steve Wool wants people to remember that his Wildkits shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Evanston has won six of its last seven games and beat then-ranked Waukegan in December and No. 21 Bogan over the weekend at the City-Suburban shootout. The 13-6 Wildkits’ last loss came against Mother McAuley in the final seconds at the Dundee-Crown tournament. But Evanston eventually won the consolation championship at D-C.
Kim Davis has been huge for Evanston and is averaging a double double in points and rebounds (14 ppg and 11 rpg). Darcel Retreage (15 ppg) is a threat from three-point range, and Collier Clegg (12 ppg) are both averaging in double figures in scoring.

One of the top juniors in Ilinois got her college commitment out of the way Sunday.
Wheeling’s 6-foot forward Ashley Wilson made an oral commitment to Purdue during a team trip to watch the Boilermakers play UConn in West Layfayette, Ind. Wilson just went over the 1,000 point mark last week during the Wildcats victorious run through the Warren tournament. And she is considered one of the most heavily recruited girls basketball players to come out of Wheeling, according to coach Shelly Wiegel.
Wiegel said Sunday that Wilson will probably play guard-forward in college, and that Purdue is the right fit for Wilson.
“I’m happy that she felt comfortable enough to make that decision, because I thought it was beginning to weigh on her,” Wiegel said.

Thursday night at Buffalo Grove may have been the coming out party for Fenwick's Lauren Gula. During the Bison’s 52-47 win over visiting Fenwick, there was no shortage of oohs and ahhs as everyone watched Fenwick’s 6-foot senior center score 13 points and step in for the ailing Katlyn Payne. Payne, a sophomore forward, has to sit out for at least two weeks while she recovers from a broken right foot.
Gula is all arms and blocked shots. She tried hard to stop a Buffalo Grove fourth-quarter rally, but she still shined in the loss. Gula also credited Clare Liston, who scored nine points.
“[Payne] is an amazing player and she could have really helped us out, but Clare Liston really stepped up too, and everyone just stepped up today. We threw the game away and we had it, but we threw it away on the press,” Gula said.