Girls basketball notes: Sara Abdul and Wheaton North, after early shooting struggles, on six-game win streak

Tyler Bantz had a rather concise explanation for his Wheaton North team’s reversal of fortunes over the last six games.

“To be honest, it’s two things,” the Falcons coach said. “We’ve been taking care of the ball better, and we’ve been making shots. It’s really that simple.”

It’s indeed been working.

Wheaton North (14-8, 2-5 DuKane Conference), stuck at .500 after 16 games, carried a six-game winning streak into Thursday’s home game against conference co-leader St. Charles North.

Leading the Falcons’ upward flight has been junior guard Sara Abdul. Abdul, averaging 17.7 points, 3 assists and 2.8 steals per game, in many respects is a reflection of Wheaton North’s season. She struggled with her shot early, but has been on a tear of late. In the last week Abdul scored 29 points in a win over Lake Park, 23 in a win over Sycamore and 22 in a win over Glenbard West.

“I lot of her shots early that typically would go in didn’t. I knew eventually those would go down,” Bantz said. “To be honest, I think she had to see the ball go through the basket. She’s been rolling. We rely on her for a lot of our playmaking and ballhandling, and just pure scoring. The last month she has kicked it up.”

Abdul couldn’t quite pinpoint how she got back on track, but she’s certainly pleased with the results of late.

“I don’t really know, at the beginning of the year it was hard. Shots that I was taking weren’t going in and normally they would have been,” Abdul said. “I’ve been scoring more, playing better defense. It gets me more confident. I take a lot of shots in practice and I’m always in the gym.”

When Abdul is on, she is putting pressure on defenses with her ability to get into the lane with a nifty midrange jump shot.

“She uses her body well to create space with a good pull-up,” Bantz said. “If she is hitting outside shots it creates more issues for defenses and they have to come out more on her. She puts a lot of pressure at each level defensively. She has different ways to finish and is a nice passer.”

Against Lake Park, Abdul scored 25 of her 29 points in the second half.

“I’ve been told by coaches that I had in the past that I can get past people, I’m a pretty good driver but everybody expects me to drive,” Abdul said. “So pulling up midrange catches people off guard.”

Complementing Abdul is senior Zoey Bohmer, a Loyola soccer recruit averaging 10.2 points, a team-high 6.2 rebounds and 2.5 steals.

“She is our inside presence, the one that does all the dirty work – but we also ask her to score,” Bantz said. “She is our leading rebounder, leader in charges, leader in floor burns, diving on loose balls – she is really tough and physical. She’s a Division I soccer player but she understands basketball well and understands how it should be played.”

Benet turns things around

Benet got off to an up-and-down first month of the season, 6-4 through 10 games after an 18-point loss at home to Nazareth Dec. 13.

The Redwings have found their rhythm since.

Benet (15-5) is 9-1 over its last 10, the lone loss to Montini at the Montini Christmas Classic.

“I think we’re just getting better day by day, week by week,” Benet coach Joe Kilbride said. “We’ve been working on some things that we weren’t doing well earlier, getting better at some things. It’s no secret. We’re getting better at what we do.”

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Benet required time to establish itself, with two-time Suburban Life Player of the Year Lenee Beaumont graduated and now at Indiana. Kilbride said he usually enters the season with a plan on what his teams need to do to be at their best. It usually takes some tweaking, though, until he figures things out around Christmas. In this case, Kilbride said Benet has modified to play more of an up-tempo style as the season has progressed.

“I tell the kids, look, I’m experimenting with personnel, strategy, you’re getting better, I’m getting better. Usually by Christmas we have a good idea what’s working,” Kilbride said. “We try to get it figured out by February.”

Senior Emilia Sularski is averaging a team-high 11.4 points per game, with Lindsay Harzich at 8.4 and sophomore Emma Briggs at 8.2. Fellow sophomore Bridget Rifenburg leads Benet in rebounds by one over Sularski.

Kilbride identified the development of his two sophomores as key to Benet’s strides.

“The two sophomores have figured things out and got a lot better,” Kilbride said. “We expected the three returning starters (Sularski, Maggie Sularski and Harzich) would be fine, and they’ve been good. The two sophomores, this is their first season seeing significant time. They have both improved and the last couple games [freshman Ava] Mersinger has played well.”

The schedule toughens with a game against East Moline United Township Saturday in Moline, and a rematch with Nazareth Jan. 29 sandwiched around a game with Carmel.

Nazareth takes all comers

Nazareth has taken on all comers this season – in various corners of the country.

The Roadrunners (16-3) faced three of the top 10 teams in the nation over the Christmas holiday in Tampa, beating two of them and losing to the third on a buzzer-beater in overtime. On Monday Nazareth rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit for a 44-43 win over Pewaukee, the Class 3A state runner-up in Wisconsin last season ranked No. 1 in Wisconsin and 23rd in the nation this season.

“We have so much experience with this team and we wanted to put us against the best teams, wherever we could find them, and different styles,” Nazareth coach Eddie Stritzel said. “It started with the Tampa trip and is continuing here. Our goal is to face multiple teams and different styles of play.”

Nazareth will get a second test against a team from north of the border when Arrowhead, ranked No. 1 in Wisconsin by MaxPreps, visits La Grange Park on Jan. 27. It’s a uniquely enjoyable experience for Nazareth sophomore Stella Sakalas, who plays AAU with the Wisconsin Lakers with many of the Wisconsin girls, but many of the other Roadrunners are also familiar with the Pewaukee and Arrowhead girls.

“Even though they are two different states, there’s a lot of familiarity,” Stritzel said. “That Pewaukee game was like two heavyweights going at it, one heck of a game.”

Nazareth, defending Class 3A champ, has been bumped up to Class 4A this season. Preparation for that upcoming challenge is just one reason why Stritzel has scheduled so aggressively.

“You have to see different styles to get ready for 4A, and we wanted a different challenge for our team. A lot of these kids have been playing for us since they were freshmen and we wanted different challenges from other states to see where we’re at,” Stritzel said. “I think we’re playing well. The key is I have to keep the team motivated and have to keep them loose. I think being in 4A is helping them. In 3A, we were one of the clear favorites. I’m not saying we’re an underdog in 4A, but a lot of teams can win it. A couple early losses probably put us under the radar and helped the kids get better and better.”