Guerin clinches Gold Division title
By Danny Carlino Contributor February 6, 2012 8:06PM
Guerin Prep's Rebecca Bartnicki shoots over Marian Central Catholic's Simone Awe. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media
Article Extras
Updated: March 10, 2012 8:30AM
The beat goes on for the Guerin girls’ basketball team as it racked up three more wins last week to run its winning streak to 12 games.
The Gators also claimed the Suburban Christian Conference Gold Division title with their win at Immaculate Conception on Feb. 1.
They’ve won 16 of their last 17 games and have yet to lose in 2012 with their last defeat coming on Dec. 27.
“I want to go to Disney World,” Guerin head coach Johnnie Gage said. “I feel pretty good, but now the pressure comes because we’ve done all this. There’s no reason we shouldn’t play really well. This is the best season of any Guerin team I’ve coached. I haven’t seen a team play that well around here since Dan McCarthy coached the 2003 Holy Cross team that had 23 wins. Even on a bad day they played good.”
The Gators (25-3, 9-1) clinched their first conference championship when they used a late first-quarter run to get out ahead of Immaculate Conception and held off the Knights the rest of the way with a 50-40 victory.
Senior Kalie DiNunno led all scorers with 18 points with eight of them coming in that first quarter. Sophomore Becky Bartnicki contributed 12 points while junior Jackie Bartnicki had all of her nine points from beyond the three-point arc.
They started the week with an easy 59-26 win over Luther North in a nonconference game on Jan. 30. The defense led the way for Guerin as it nabbed 27 steals on the night while allowing just four field goals in the first half. Guerin had balanced scoring on a night that saw the Bartnicki girls each score nine points. Jackie, once again, had all of her points from threes while Becky pulled down 11 rebounds. Juniors Sara Brodner and Allison Stieber and senior Molly Campbell each contributed eight in the victory.
“I think we played really well as a team, and it was fun because everybody got a chance to play,” Brodner said. “I’ve been focusing more on my defense and boxing out, but I was able to get some points down low.”
Defense was again huge for the Gators as their pressure kept the visiting Hurricanes from getting anything going as they knocked off conference rival Marian Central Catholic 43-28 on Friday night at home. Guerin allowed just seven points in the first half, going into the break with a 20-point lead. Jackie Bartnicki’s early hot streak helped as she connected three times from three-point range in the opening quarter on her way to leading all scorers with 17 points.
“We went out hard so we wouldn’t have to work harder later,” Jackie Bartnicki said. “They were just open shots, and I decided to keep taking them, and they kept falling. My teammates also told me to just keep shooting.”
The Gators had three players in double figures as sophomore Becky Bartnicki had 11 and junior Sara Brodner contributed 10 on the night with Brodner grabbing 11 and Becky snatching 10 rebounds on the night. Brodner also had four blocks. DiNunno didn’t score, but her contribution was big just the same as she had 10 assists and seven steals as they played very aggressively that obviously bothered the Hurricane players and coaches.
“The object of the game is to keep the team from chipping away at the lead,” Gage said in defense of his team’s defensive pressure. “What are we supposed to do, not score and let the other team catch up and start all over again? I wish coaches would coach their team and not worry about what happens on the other side.”
Comments Click here to view or make a comment