Lainey Gussman gets well, gets career-high 20 to fuel Yorkville’s runaway win over Minooka

YORKVILLE – Lainey Gussman hasn’t felt like herself lately, and Yorkville felt the effects.

The Foxes' 5-foot-10 senior guard dealt with a sinus infection the last three weeks. She was prescribed antibiotics, and played through the congestion, not missing a game or practice.

“I definitely am feeling better,” Gussman said. “Two games ago I was struggling to breathe. Since I got on the antibiotics the breathing was better. Being able to breathe out there makes a total difference.”

Gussman when she’s well is a ball of energy, a force on the boards and the engine to the Foxes' transition game. And she looked the part Thursday.

Gussman scored a career-high 20 points to go along with 10 rebounds, and fueled Yorkville’s runaway 46-32 win over visiting Minooka in the Southwest Prairie Conference.

Gussman scored six of her 20 points and assisted a Madi Spychalski basket during Yorkville’s 11-0 run to end the first half ahead 28-17. The Foxes never looked back.

“She spurred the pull away, and we’ve been missing that the last 2-3 games,” Yorkville coach Kim Wensits said. “She’s been under the weather and you can’t replicate what she can do when she’s healthy. Her motor is super high. We play so much better when we play fast and she got it going for us.”

Indeed, Gussman can at times be a one-girl fastbreak. On a play in the final minute of the first half she grabbed the defensive rebound, sprinted down the court and caught the ball in transition for a layup.

The final seconds of the third quarter, Gussman drove into traffic, then followed her own miss to give the Foxes a commanding 39-20 lead.

“She really can [be a one-person fast break] and that is all a tribute to her. She has put in so much time in the weight room and her conditioning is off the charts,” Wensits said. “It’s amazing what she can do coming off of being sick.”

Brooke Spychalski added 11 points and Madi Spychalski five points and seven rebounds for Yorkville (3-3, 1-1). Kendall Thomas scored 11 points and Madelyn Kiper had eight points and 13 rebounds for Minooka (2-6, 0-2).

Minooka only led once, the game’s first basket, but had it tied 17-17 with under three minutes left in the first half.

But Gussman’s putback basket gave Yorkville the lead for good, she scored in transition and Madi Spychalski’s 3-pointer made it 24-17.

Baskets by Gussman and Sydney McCabe out of halftime extended the run to 16-0 for a 33-17 lead.

“Something just clicked,” Gussman said. “Once stuff started to flow we went pedal to the metal, kept pushing. All gas, no brakes is something we say a lot.”

Minooka’s offense, meanwhile, was stuck in neutral. The Indians went scoreless for a nearly eight-minute stretch bridging the second and third quarters and were held to a season-low point total.

“We just made some bad decisions offensively and we couldn’t buy a bucket,” Minooka coach John Placher said. “Our shooting percentage was very low. When you can’t put the ball in the hoop and you’re not rebounding well good things don’t happen. Ball wasn’t going in for us, and they shot the ball well too. That’s a bad recipe.”

Wensits said the Foxes spent a lot of time on defense preparing for Minooka and Kiper, who was held to 2-for-14 shooting.

“I know they have a lot of good action where they’re looking for No. 24 [Kiper]. You have to limit her touches or she can go off for 25 or 30,” Wensits said. “We had Lainey matching up with her first, and when she got in foul trouble Macie [Jones] did a great job of that.

“Once we switched to a zone, we went with it for two minutes and said they haven’t done anything with it, let’s stick with it. I was nervous about the rebounds but fortunately we did a good job.”

Thomas scored nine of her 11 points in the fourth quarter for Minooka, which dropped its fifth straight game.

“We got a lot of work to do but we have a good group of girls who work hard in practice,” Placher said. “We’ll get there.”