Girls basketball: Ellie Mjaanes’ big game leads Cary-Grove past Burlington Central

BURLINGTON – Whenever Cary-Grove’s Ellie Mjaanes decided to attack the basket Wednesday, the result was almost always the same.

The junior forward displayed a smooth shot and was unstoppable in the post, hitting her first eight shots and outscoring Burlington Central by herself through the first three quarters.

Mjaanes, C-G’s tallest player at 6-foot-2, ended a special night with 27 points on 11-of-13 shooting and had six rebounds as the Trojans led from start to finish to beat the Rockets 52-34 in their Fox Valley Conference game at Rocket Hill.

But even more than scoring big buckets, Trojans coach Tony Moretti has been impressed with what Mjaanes brings on an everyday basis.

“The big talk with Ellie this year has been becoming a leader,” Moretti said. “And more important than her hitting shots for us is the leader that she’s become. The girls all look up to her. She gets us going. In each game, she takes another step toward being a great leader.

“When Ellie is going well, you can tell. She commands the room; she has the respect of her teammates.”

Central was unable to do anything to slow down Mjaanes, who did not miss from the field in the first half. While most of her points came from inside, she showed no hesitation shooting from the outside, including a 3-pointer that gave C-G (10-8, 4-3 FVC) a 28-18 lead with 1:38 left in the second quarter.

Mjaanes had 19 points by halftime before her first missed shot late in the third quarter on a contested jumper. She came right back on the Trojans’ next possession and drove the lane to score for a 40-18 lead.

“I’ve been really working on going into the defender with my post moves and just being able to stretch the floor and becoming more of a threat,” Mjaanes said. “It was nice to start off with some makes, but my team was definitely doing a good job of feeding me the ball.

“I think we’re capable of so much. We haven’t hit our peak yet.”

“The girls all look up to her, she gets us going. In each game, she takes another step towards being a great leader.”

—  Tony Moretti, Cary-Grove girls basketball coach, on the growth of junior forward Ellie Mjaanes

Junior guard Sam Skerl had three 3-pointers for nine points and added three assists for C-G, senior guard Emily Larry tallied six points on two 3s with six rebounds, and sophomore Kennedy Manning led a defense that created 22 turnovers with a team-high six steals.

An action-packed first quarter saw the Trojans take a 16-13 lead. Over the next two quarters, C-G held Central to only seven points.

The Trojans led 42-20 going into the fourth.

“We got caught a couple times in the first quarter with our press, and they were able to move the ball a little bit,” Moretti said. “We also stressed coming off that baseline drive or dropping on defense, so they couldn’t get ball reversals so easy. Everything was about limiting their touches and ball reversals.”

Along with her nine points, Skerl had two steals for the Trojans, who held the Rockets to 28.3% shooting (13 of 46).

“We were pressuring them really hard and didn’t want to leave them with any open shots because we know they’re a real good shooting team,” Skerl said. “We just came back at them and had some fast breaks, kept driving, kicking it out and had a lot of good looks.”

The Rockets were led by senior guard Emersyn Fry with 17 points, including four 3s. Senior forward Emma Payton tossed in six points on two 3s, and senior guard Savannah Scheuer had five points.

Wednesday’s loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Rockets, who ended 2023 by winning the Montini Christmas Classic consolation bracket championship.

Central coach Mike Carani is looking for consistency from his team.

“We play decent in spots, and then we just get away from it,” Carani said. “We’ve shown that we can play with these teams – we match up – but if you’re not going to play consistently and leave some gaps in there, teams take advantage.

“They played defense very well, rotated very well, and that caused problems with our girls just with trying to find opportunities. I see spurts, I just don’t see the consistency, and that’s what’s killing us. You can’t take a quarter off, you can’t take a couple minutes off.”