Oak Park’s Hall picks Illinois State

Updated: July 12, 2011 11:39AM

When a college recruiter is watching one of your games, timing is everything.

Stekara Hall scored only three points on 0-for-10 shooting against Bogan in the opening game of the Montini Christmas Classic last season. Fortunately for Hall, coaches from Illinois State watched a few of her other games during the tournament. Hall had perhaps the best three-game stretch of her career to end the tournament when she scored 96 points, capped by a career-high 35 points against St. Joseph Dec. 30. One day earlier, Hall scored 30 points while leading Oak Park-River Forest from a 20-point deficit to beat York. Hall won the game with the game-winning shot at the buzzer.

Illinois State remained interested in Hall and after taking a visit earlier in June, Hall, a 5-foot-9 senior guard, verbally committed June 23 to play at ISU starting in 2012. The first signing period for basketball is in November.

“The coaches were all just great,” Hall said. “I figured I knew right then and there.”

Hall would like to study sports marketing and business management at the Missouri Valley School. She chose the Redbirds over Bradley, UTEP and Cincinnati.

Hall follows former OPRF forward Ashleen Bracey, who completed her playing career at ISU in 2010. Bracey played one season of professional basketball in Greece and accepted a position in January as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Eureka College.

One of Hall’s former teammates, Brittany Smith, competes in throws for the Redbirds women’s track and field team. Smith completed her freshman season last year and will be a sophomore this season. Smith won a Junior National Championship in the shot put and placed fifth in the discus and eighth in the shot put for the Huskies in the 2008 Class AA state meet.

The Huskies have already played shootouts in Sterling and Addison Trail this summer and hope to build toward next season behind Hall and junior guard Caroline Kelty. OPRF coach Bob Biggins said Hall deserves consideration as the West Suburban Silver Conference’s top player for next season. She averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds per game last season.

“Stekara has looked great. I’m very impressed with her. She has really matured,” Biggins said. “She looks great. I’m excited about her having a great year. If she’s set college-wise, that anxiety will be out of the way and not distract her.”

OPRF (18-13 last season, 9-3 conference) earned a share of its first conference title since 2003, but lost to Hoffman Estates in the opening round of the Class 4A playoffs.

On Jan. 24, Hall outdueled Hersey’s Megan Rogowski by outscoring the future DePaul freshman 30-27 in the championship game of Fenton’s Seasons’ End tournament. Hersey won the contest 61-56.

OPRF will compete in Riverside-Brookfield’s Minuteman Shootout Friday and Saturday. The Huskies open the tournament against Lisle at 3:30 p.m. Friday. That summer tournament includes Fenwick. OPRF will compete in the Maine West Observation tournament July 16-17.

Hall will spend most of this month traveling with the Chicago Hoops Express AAU team, which includes Trinity’s Victoria Harris. Hall will attend the Adidas Jamboree for individuals July 6 in Bourbonnais. With the Express, Hall will compete in four tournaments starting this month with the Indy 100 July 9-11 in Fishers, Ind., the Midwest Summer Challenge July 13-15 in Lake Barrington, the Best of the Midwest Jam July 25-27 in Schaumburg and the Summer Final Midwest July 28-30 in Waukegan.

“Everything I need to work on,” Hall said. “I’m working on my ballhandling, my shooting game and making an impact on the team,” Hall said.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.