Astros give O'Connor big parting gift

Shepard coach Pat O'Connor addresses his bench during a timeout against Tinley Park.
(Brett Roseman/SouthtownStar)

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Pat O’Connor received a lot of neat stuff Thursday night before the final home game of his 25-year head coaching career at Shepard.

He was given a referee shirt and a whistle as sort of a humorous reminder of his colorful encounters with officials. The school gave him White Sox apparel. The White Sox sent him a certificate and tickets to a game.

Then senior Demetria Ward gave his home career a storybook ending, as the Astros dominated from start to finish in a stunning 69-40 South Suburban Blue victory over Tinley Park.

Ward, a 5-foot-10 forward, scored 32 points and pulled down 19 rebounds. Casey Smith added 14 points and nine rebounds as Shepard (9-11, 7-3) won its fourth consecutive game.

Sarah Fencl tallied 23 points and Nicole Blalock six for Tinley Park (18-4, 5-3).

“I would have been happy with a one-point win,” O’Connor said. “I mean, Tinley Park is a really good team. We just really played inspired tonight. It was one of those nights for us.

“I feel great. I mean, look at this,” he said, also referring to the pregame presentation that included hugs from 33 former players who came out in his honor. “The whole atmosphere was just awfully cool.”

It figured to be a matchup between two of the top scorers in the area in Ward (17.6) and Fencl (23.3). It was, but Ward had a much stronger supporting cast.

The feeds alone from Kayla McKinney (six assists) and Rachael Pierce (six assists) to Ward made the Astros virtually unstoppable under the basket. Of her 15 field goals, 13 of them were layups. Smith had several layups as well.

“I kept asking them, ‘Pass me the ball, pass me the ball,’ and they kept passing me the ball and I kept putting it in the bucket,” Ward said, smiling.

“We were very excited to play tonight for coach,” Ward said. “And everybody was telling us how good Tinley Park was, but we said we were going to win.”

Shepard led 17-9 after one period and 33-14 at halftime. Fencl got into foul trouble and had to sit part of the second period. She had just one field goal in the first half, but hit 10 of 15 free throws. Fencl was 14-of-21 for the night from the charity stripe.

“We started off just trying to stop her man-to-man,” O’Connor said. “She went to the free-throw line so often we said, ‘Let’s try zone,’ and the kids did a nice job. At least it helped slow her down a little.”