Sports
Girls Basketball Preview: Defense Sets Tone for Trevians
New Trier held Phillips scoreless in the first quarter and is looking to prove itself in one of the state's toughest conferences.
Coach Teri Rodgers wanted ’s identity to be formed on the defensive end this season. And it took all of eight minutes for the Trevians to show they were serious about making a deep playoff run.
New Trier went up 28-0 after the first quarter and cruised to a season-opening 60-23 win over Phillips in Chicago Nov. 16.
Earlier:
Find out what's happening in Winnetka-Glencoewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“We talked to the kids early on about every time we’ve gone downstate and had success, it’s all been predicated on our defense,” Rodgers said. “I thought they came out and played really good defense and set the tone for the game right away.”
Northwestern-bound senior Maggie Lyon scored 18 points – all of them in the first quarter – to lead New Trier, and she also got plenty of help from the rest of the Trevians. Senior Jessica Blackwell and Carolyn Fishman both had eight points for New Trier, which had 10 different players score against Phillips.
Find out what's happening in Winnetka-Glencoewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The Lady Trevians used their full-court pressure early on to force a number of turnovers from Phillips, leading to easy points on the other end. With the graduation of center Abbey Schmitt, New Trier is going to push the tempo more often and look to get out in transition.
“We’re a little bit more athletic; we don’t have tremendous height down low,” Rodgers said. “We want to play a [full-court] game. We want to use it all to our advantage.”
Along with Lyon, senior guard Brigit Ieuter and Blackwell return as starters for New Trier. Sophomore Isabelle Bosco and senior Meg Rosinski round out the Trevians’ starting five. Rosinski was a key player off the bench for New Trier last year while Bosco was called up mid-season and got some varsity experience down the stretch.
New Trier’s smaller, quicker lineup means more of the rebounding responsibilities will fall to Lyon and Blackwell.
“That’s always something I try and think about is crashing the boards,” Lyon said. “Because we have so many run outs and not as many people will be crashing the boards, that’s something our team has to stress. Before we get our fast break, we have to rebound.”
Stay tuned to Patch for more on the 2011-2012 basketball season. Like your local Patch on Facebook.
