After a tough stretch of games against top-notch competition, the York girls basketball team got back to familiar winning ways.
The Dukes outscored Hinsdale Central 43-14 in the second half to record a 75-42 West Suburban Conference Silver Division win.
York led only 32-28 at halftime.
Sophomore Sydney Molis had a career-high 18 points, including 13 in the second half. She made two 3-pointers. Carly Schwartz added 14 points on the strength of four 3-pointers. Sophomore Kaitlyn Kjome added 13 points, including one 3-pointer. Kathleen Levins had nine points and Megan Juneman, a sophomore, added eight points to complete a well-rounded scoring effort.
“We just got done with a tough stretch,” said York coach Brandon Collings. “We had a nice Christmas tournament. We had Geneva down and couldn’t finish it out. We ended up winning the consolation championship at Montini.”
The Dukes then dropped a six-point WSC Silver game to Downers Grove North and also lost a 44-41 league game to Glenbard West.
“We had Glenbard West down by seven most of the game and we couldn’t hold them off in the fourth and lost by three,” said Collings.
The Hinsdale Central win put York at 14-8 overall and 5-3 in WSC Silver play.
“We came out in the second half and defended,” said Collings. “We had steals and created turnovers and hit shots. We had been in a shooting rut. We put pressure on them offensively. We hit six 3s in the game.”
York won the game without leading scorer Sara Krissinger who was injured in a game against Maine South and missed the majority of that contest and the Hinsdale game. “The girls picked her up and played well,” said Collings. “Sydney Molis had a career high, Kathleen Levins played really well. Megan Juneman is only a sophomore and played well. Everybody played well together. Sydney Fuglsang has been doing a great job at the point-guard position. Everybody, overall, is getting better. We’re still a team on any given night where we can have a different leading scorer. Sydney and Kaitlyn have been stepping up scoring for us lately. We’re getting a lot better and our sophomores are getting a lot better.”
York plays Lake Park tonight and then faces Proviso West in a conference game Saturday.
“We get another shot at Downers North at the end of the month,” said Collings.
Collings noted York will host a Class 4A regional next month.
“We had a rough nine-game stretch recently,” he said. “I added up the records of our opponents during those games and it was something like 100 wins and 30 losses. We played Benet, Bolingbrook, Glenbard West, Downers Grove North and Geneva and those all were losses during that stretch. Those were tough games, but in quite a few of them we were playing well three of the four quarters. It’s a young team that still is learning how to close out games. We just have to keep taking care of business and continue to get better and improve so we make sure we are playing our best basketball by the regional.”
In the Glenbard West game, York led 9-8 after the first quarter and 24-18 at halftime. York increased the lead to 34-27 after three, but the Hilltoppers outscored the Dukes 17-7 in the fourth.
Molis had 12, while Kjome scored 11 points. Krissinger had six points and shot 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. Fuglsang had five points.
