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Girls Basketball: Trinity’s balanced attack tops St Joseph
St. Joseph girls basketball played Trinity at home on 1/19. St. Joe's Kaci Beemon guards the ball.
| Tamara Bell~Sun Times Media
Updated: January 19, 2012 9:51PM
DePaul-bound Megan Podkowa usually carries a heavy scoring burden for Trinity, but the Blazers are trying to change that in the second half of the season.
It’s starting to work. Trinity won its 11th consecutive game Thursday night, but the biggest key is a more balanced attack. The No. 4 Blazers won 61-30 at No. 25 St. Joseph to remain in first place in the GCAC Red. The margin of defeat was the Chargers’ biggest of the season and ended a three-game winning streak.
Podkowa (11 rebounds) scored a game-high 15 points, but guard Taylor Nazon had 11 points and Alyssa Dengler chipped in 10 points, all in the first half.
“That’s the difference,” Blazers coach Ed Stritzel said. “Trinity always gets respect, but anytime you get three kids in double figures [scoring], that helps. Our one goal is to win the state championship. We need three kids [scoring] in order to beat Bolingbrook or Whitney Young.”
The Chargers (16-6, 2-3) scored 15 points in each half, but couldn’t threaten after allowing the first six points to open the game. St. Joseph came within 21-15 in the second half, but the Blazers (18-1, 7-0) scored the final nine points of the second quarter and the first eight points of the third quarter to take a 38-15 lead.
Podkowa was off to a slow start with only five points in the first half. She made only 2-of-8 baskets before halftime, but had nine rebounds in the first half. Podkowa scored the first two baskets in the third quarter on a pair of three-pointers, her only two in the game.
“I came out in the second half on the perimeter more. They were double-teaming me in the post [earlier],” Podkowa said. “[Balance] is exactly what we need to do. We’re working on getting everybody involved. It’s great to have everyone helping out.”
St. Joseph’s leading scorers Donna Koerber (eight points, five rebounds) and Briya Wilborn (five points, six rebounds) had their own struggles. Koerber had only four points in the first half and did not make a basket until a 12-foot jumper with 4:02 remaining in the second quarter. She went scoreless in the opening quarter. The Chargers would not make another field goal in the first half after Koerber’s basket. The Chargers opened the second half by missing their first seven shots.
The Chargers shot 2 of 10 from the floor in the second quarter, 5-of-24 in the first half.
Taller Trinity dominated in the post with 23 rebounds in the first half compared to St. Joseph’s 10.
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