Indian Creek holds on late to topple Aurora Christian in battle of teams restarting varsity programs

SHABBONA – In a battle of teams playing varsity basketball for the first time in at least a year and a half, Indian Creek got a pair of free throws late from Izzy Turner in a 52-50 win against Aurora Christian on Monday.

The Timberwolves (1-0) didn’t have a varsity team last season, and Aurora Christian coach Tori Henning said the Eagles (0-1) last fielded a varsity team in the 2021-22 season.

Turner, one of two IC players on the court with varsity experience alongside teammate Bethany Odle, hit two free throws with 1:22 left to break the 13th tie of the game and put the Timberwolves ahead 51-49.

“I think it’s really exciting,” Turner said. “I think we’re going to be a really good team. We work well together, I think.”

Ally Keilman added a free throw for IC to push the lead to 52-49 with 36 seconds left. That began a stretch in which the Eagles possessed the ball for most of the remainder of the game but couldn’t score more than one free throw by Jada Vizkaya despite five shots and a steal on the lone Indian Creek rebound.

Indian Creek coach Paul Muchmore and Henning said their teams are further ahead than they expected.

“I would say better than I was expecting, honestly,” said Henning, who is in her third year with the program after coaching the lower levels the past two years. “First game in our first year as varsity in like three years, and we are also starting two freshmen. A lot of jitters all the way around, but I’m pleased with the way we came out and battled. Two-point loss, I’ll take it for our first varsity game.”

Turner made onlu two of her first six free throw attempts in the game before going to the line for her crucial attempts late in the fourth. She finished the game with 20 points and four rebounds.

“I realized that my footing was kind of off, so I changed that,” Turner said. “I also started lining up my arm, and I was making them.”

In addition to the 13 ties, there were seven lead changes in the contest. The biggest lead for either team was five points – the Timberwolves led 8-3 after a steal and layup by Keilman, while the Eagles built a 41-36 lead on a 3-pointer.

Aurora Christian made eight 3-pointers in the game, including five by McKenzie Jensen to account for all of her team-high 15 points. But they attempted only three from long range in the fourth quarter, missing them all.

“We actually are at our best when we attack the basket,” said Henning, whose team had a 54-43 edge on the boards. “We shot well in the first half, but our strength is attacking the hoop. We missed a couple of layups, unfortunately, that cost us down the stretch. But that’s our strategy: Attack the hoop, less 3s.”

Keilman had 12 points, six rebounds and four steals for the Timberwolves. Odle had eight points, including two 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions for IC, the team’s only 3s of the game.

Freshman Madison Boehne had 14 rebounds and seven points. She played well at a sophomore tournament at St. Bede last week, and Muchmore said she earned a spot in the starting lineup.

“She did a real nice job there, so we thought let’s give her the start here,” Muchmore said. “She’s smart, and she plays hard. You can’t beat that. In high school girls basketball, you can’t beat somebody that plays smart and plays hard.”

The Timberwolves are off until Dec. 5, when they begin Little Ten Conference play at Somonauk.

Muchmore said he liked what he saw Monday.

“Everybody can play hard,” Muchmore said. “And they played hard right until the end. That’s a lot of those loose balls we got, and we got some layups, made some nice free throws down the stretch. We let a couple rebounds go in the end but secured it in the end and came out with a nice victory.”