New Trier throttles Morgan Park at Shootout
Schmitt's 27 points, Lyon's 21 with 7 three-pointers lead way
Maggie Lyon has found her shot and now the New Trier girls basketball team’s offense is really clicking.
That was emphatically evident Saturday when the Trevians (18-3) blitzed Morgan Park 68-51 in a battle of area-ranked teams at the McDonald’s Shootout at Willowbrook.
Lyon, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, connected on 7 of 12 three-pointers to score 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while 6-0 junior teammate Abbey Schmitt played tough in the paint with a game-high 27 points and 11 rebounds to lead a high-caliber attack that displayed outstanding spacing, ball movement and shooting against the Mustangs (16-4).
Molly Quirke (6 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals), Hayley Campbell (6 points) and Amy Hart and Liz Pedi (4 apiece) also aided the Trevians’ offense that built a 38-19 halftime lead.
“I just think my confidence is back. I’ve been working on my shot because it just hasn’t been falling and now finally it is,” Lyon said. “Everyone else was playing well so it just helps me make shots. We’re running the court well and we’re hitting shots on the run.”
Lyon’s shooting slump might have been due to her adjusting to moving to point guard this season.
“She’s playing the point for us and so there’s that balance between setting everybody else up and then looking for her shot,” New Trier coach Teri Rodgers said. “In the last couple weeks, she’s really figured out how to balance that. It takes time.”
Schmitt, meanwhile, played well against 6-foot Jackson State recruit Ayanna Hardy-Fuller (17 points, 6 rebounds) and 6-0 Gabrielle Richmond (13 points, 6 rebounds).
“I knew I had to be strong to keep up with No. 4 (Hardy-Fuller) and their really strong post players,” said Schmitt, who had three putbacks among her six offensive rebounds. “I always try to box out, do the little things right, take it hard to them.”
With Lyon making five three-pointers, she and Schmitt each scored 15 points in the first half as the Trevians jumped to a 21-9 first-quarter lead that they extended to 38-19 by halftime. Morgan Park never got closer than 16 in the second half.
New Trier shot a blistering 16 of 27 in the first half, compared to 8 of 30 for Morgan Park as the Trevians forced the Mustangs into tough shots. New Trier shot 54 percent for the game (30 of 56).
“The last week or so it’s really starting to click and it takes a while for the kids to understand their role and where they’re comfortable out there,” Rodgers said of the offense. “The kids are really beginning to understand that, they’re finding each other, they know where everybody likes to be when things get a little stressful. I thought we were doing a great job in scoring kind of on broken plays because kids are just playing really smart. It was a nice win.”
The win was the fourth in a row for the Trevians since their 53-46 loss to Marian Catholic , which thrives on a similar style to Morgan Park.
“(Marian Catholic is a) pretty similar team and we lost to them mainly because we didn’t keep them off the offensive boards and we didn’t break their press,” Rodgers said. “(Morgan Park’s) press didn’t hurt us too bad, and for the most part til the very end, we kept them off the boards and we did a nice job of really frustrating them.”
The win also followed New Trier’s impressive 62-56 win over Glenbrook South (14-5) Friday that avenged an earlier loss.
“We really wanted to win these two games especially to show that we could compete with the best teams in the state,” Schmitt said.
Photo:
New Trier's Hayley Campbell battles for a rebound against Glenbrook South Friday. (Photo by Mark Shurson/www.markshursonphotography.com)
Chicago Tribune article