Observation provides basketball overload

The third weekend in July belongs to the Maine West Observation tournament.

While Division I college recruiters take a break from a month filled with AAU tournaments, high school teams gather one last time for the summer at various gyms around Des Plaines.

Where else during the summer could three Oak Park and River Forest-area girls basketball teams play at nearly the same time? One challenge is to see if it possible to watch glimpses of games involving Oak Park-River Forest, Fenwick and Trinity on a Saturday at Maine West Observation.

OPRF: The Huskies played Parkway North of St. Louis at 10:30 a.m. at the Prairie Lakes Community Center, the park district facility for Des Plaines, which is divided into two courts.

OPRF loses a big lead, but hangs on to defeat Parkway behind junior guard Caroline Kelty. Kelty is left unguarded from the perimeter and has no trouble knocking down shots from 15 feet and beyond, and even makes a couple of three-pointers.

The summer gives a role player from last season, such as Biz Mullins, an opportunity to start. Mullins is a 5-foot-8 senior guard looking for playing time behind Kelty or even Illinois State-bound Stekara Hall. The return of Hall and Kelty makes defending West Suburban Silver co-champion OPRF one of the favorites in the conference this season.

“Whenever Stekara needs a break, I’m there to help her,” Mullins said.

Observation ended summer league play and contact days for nearly every high school girls team in the tournament. Mullins said the highlight of her summer was the overnight trip the Huskies took in June to participate in a shootout at Marquette University in Milwaukee. OPRF also finished in the top four at Riverside-Brookfield’s Minute Man Classic July 9.

“We stayed in the dorms (at Marquette),” Mullins said. “It was good. It was really fun. It was our first shootout in June during the first week of the summer.”

Mullins gets her unusual first name from a childhood nickname. Her birth name is Elizabeth, but as a child Mullins pronounced her game as “Bizbeth.” The nickname stuck. When she has not been playing basketball this summer, Mullins has worked as a facility attendant at Rehm Pool.

Fenwick: The Friars fielded two different teams at Observation — Black and White. Its Black team with varsity players played Neuqua Valley at 1 p.m. at Maine West. The team is missing standout Marek Burchett, but returns 6-footer Meredith Boardman with a brace on her right leg and guards Jade Owens and Maggie Reilly.

Fenwick easily beats Neuqua, but coach Dave Power is clearly angry at his team and takes nearly 10 minutes afterward to explain the correct technique at executing its offense. Power uses the court the Friars just played on because the game afterward between Andrew and Peoria Notre Dame was canceled.

Power hitches up his shorts and actually takes the floor to demonstrate a few plays. He misses all but one shot he takes.

The Friars are working a lot of new names into the lineup. Fenwick lost six seniors to graduation, including four starters.

“It’s a lot different than last year. We had some losses (to graduation),” said Owens, a sophomore point guard. “They’re all gone. Now I have to be a leader and help out with everything.”

Owens leaves this week to compete in the Music City Madness in Franklin, Tenn., with her club team, Chicago Hoops Express. She ends the AAU season at the Summer Final in Waukegan, which starts July 28.

Trinity: Mallory Gonzalez also heads to Tennessee this weekend and will play for the Illinois Hustle 15 Red with Streamwood’s Jessica Cerda. At 1:50 p.m. Saturday, Trinity plays Streamwood at Prairie Lakes in the last of two games the Blazers will play that day at Observation.

Gonzalez, a sophomore forward, leads Trinity to the win over Streamwood. After losing only three seniors to graduation, the Blazers look much younger than their opponents. Trinity has three returning seniors.

“I have improved a lot. In my freshman year, I was definitely scared playing with all older girls,” Gonzalez said. “I feel more like a leader. I’m having so much fun.”

Gonzalez’s Hustle team will end the AAU season at Waukegan.

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