Girls Basketball: Oak Park’s balanced attack downs Chicago Academy

Updated: January 9, 2012 8:45PM

Nearly every player scored for Oak Park-River Forest in a 65-53 victory over Chicago Academy at Fenton’s Seasons’ End tournament Monday night.

Freshman Hailey Hoye likely played the most minutes of any game she has played this season and led Oak Park-River Forest in scoring for the first time.

The future appears bright for the guard, who is still learning on the job as a reserve for the Huskies. Hoye scored 12 points and junior guard Ana Spinuzza added 11 points in a 65-53 win over Chicago Academy in the second round of Fenton’s Seasons’ End tournament. OPRF (7-14) completes pool play against the host Bison at 5 p.m. Jan. 16.

“The starters keep me motivated,” Hoye said. “Things are coming easier for me really. My teammates help me with that.”

Hoye scored six points in the first half and did not score in the fourth quarter while many of OPRF’s starters played limited minutes. The Huskies lost their first round game at Fenton, a 69-36 defeat to Rolling Meadows Jan. 4.

Chicago Academy (17-7) was led by 6-foot senior Soly Roman’s game-high 26 points, 23 in the second half after the Huskies led 37-15 at halftime. Roman equaled her season scoring average. Her season high for a single game is 41 points this season.

OPRF jumped out to leads of 16-5, 33-12 and 41-17 in the game, but the Cougars outscored the Huskies 22-15 in the final quarter.

“You want to keep your head up. You never want to give up after halftime,” Roman said. “You have to give 110 percent. We push [each other] a lot, especially in conference where we have only two losses.”

Jieve Morris added 15 points despite shooting 1-of-10 from the free-throw line and Sharaki Stroud had 10 points for the Cougars, who made only two baskets in the first six minutes of the game.

After winning only two of their first 14 games, the Huskies have revived their fortunes after winning three consecutive games to end the Montini Holiday tournament and now winning back-to-back games entering the Glenbard West game at 4 p.m. Saturday in Oak Park. Every player except junior guard Caroline Kelty scored against Chicago Academy. Kelty, OPRF’s second leading scorer, played only a few minutes in the first half and started the second half. She has scored a career high 29 points earlier this season against St. Joseph.

Junior guard Jessi Dixon was the only other Huskies player to go scoreless until she had a rebound and layup with 1:07 remaining in the game.

The Huskies pulled off one of their biggest wins of the season Saturday with a 63-62 victory over Lyons. Illinois State-bound Stekara Hall scored 33 points, two away from equaling her career high from last season. Lyons’ Colleen Connors made two free throws in the final seconds, but the Huskies gained possession to end the game.

© 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.