Smith turns in all-around strong performance for Warriors.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
The Willowbrook girls basketball team notched a 61-42 West Suburban Conference Gold Division victory recently against District 88 neighbor Addison Trail.
Willowbrook led 12-7 after the first quarter and 23-19 at halftime. The Warriors turned things up in the third quarter, outscoring Addison Trail 25-12 before holding a 13-11 edge in the fourth quarter.
Katelyn McCann led Willowbrook with 22 points, five rebounds, three steals and three assists. CeCe Lizusian had 18 points, eight rebounds and two steals. Emma Barrington finished with nine points and two steals, while Jayla Smith had a strong game with six points, nine rebounds, eight assists and five steals.
“We’ve been very up and down so far this season,” said Willowbrook coach Terry Harrell late last week. “We have good games and bad games. We’ve won two games and have had some other good efforts. We’re still getting better.”
In the Addison Trail game, Harrell was pleased with how his team distributed the ball. “We had 22 assists,” he said. “The best thing we did was we moved the ball well. We shot a lot better. Sometimes you make yourself feel better by saying the other team’s defense makes you squirrely. In some of our games it hasn’t been like we have been missing jump shots. Shooting has been an issue. Against Addison Trail we shot the ball a lot better at 39 percent which is very good for us. We need to be around there for us to be successful as a team.”
Earlier, Willowbrook lost to Proviso East in WSC Gold play. “We ran into a Proviso East juggernaut,” said Harrell. “We’re always looking to win. The girls are positive and playing well at this point. We’re going to keep looking to improve going forward.”
McCann continues to play well for the Warriors. “She’s always in double digits,” said Harrell. “She’s had a couple big games with 25 and 22 points. She accepts the idea that she is a scorer. She’s making shots. Her role is to be a shooter. Addison Trail was her first game since we talked about that and she had 22 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals. That’s a heck of a game. She filled the stat sheet in other areas as well.”
Smith also drew praise from Harrell. “She has played well the entire year,” he said. “She’s averaging 4.5 assists per game and had nine against Addison Trail. She also threw in some steals. She’s having a very good year. We’ve been playing well with our backcourt, but we just haven’t been consistent as a team.”
Overall, Harrell is happy with the direction the team and the program is headed in. “We’re making good progress,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of seniors. We’re still developing, but I like the way we are moving as a team. Our developmental levels are playing well. The sophomores are playing well and the freshman team is a juggernaut. We played them at the JV level and they were winning a game by 35 points. We have a good feeder program (West Suburban Sharks) that keeps them in the gym. If we keep doing that, we will be pretty good.”
