Trojans to host Chicago Christian Friday as part of new arena grand-opening on campus.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
All things considered, Timothy Christian girls basketball coach Michele Strube was pleased with how her team fought through the recent IMSA-Aurora Christian season-opening tournament.
The Trojans finished 2-2 and played the majority of the games shorthanded. Standout guard Jordyn Strube suffered a wrist injury early-on and will be sidelined through at least the end of the month.
“It was a rough week, but we hung in there,” she said. “Jordyn wants to come back for that Dec. 1 game in our new field house. There’s no way she wants to miss that. She had a great first game with 14 points and then got injured. That first game against Ottawa we had eight girls and were missing only one girl. Ottawa was a good team. We couldn’t stay with them in the second half. Aurora Christian is a team we could have beaten. We were with them most of the game and ended up losing by 10. We only had six girls and that was rough. We have nine girls on the team and three girls got hurt.”
One big positive was the play of Hannah Schuringa, who came back from injury and was released just in time for the team’s first game of the tournament. “Hannah is a freshman who hasn’t been able to practice and was released before the first game,” said Strube. “She got hurt during volleyball. She didn’t really know our plays, but she’s a good basketball player. We kept it super simple, nothing complicated. I thought it was a tough week, but a really nice week for us. We have two very good freshman ballplayers who know the game. We have a true freshman point guard and our turnovers were down and she was scoring, which was nice to see.”
That freshman guard is Sureya Alex. “It says a lot about Sureya,” said Strube. “She’s going to be a really nice player the next four years.”
Alex had nine points and four rebounds in the Aurora Christian game. Olivia Schuringa also was lauded for her play.
“Olivia is going to be solid for us,” said Strube. “That third game against Harvard she had 22 points. I believe Hannah (Olivia Schuringa’s sister) had 18 rebounds. Hannah has averaged a double-double (double digits in points and rebounds in a game) almost every game and I thinks she’s averaging 13 rebounds a game. That’s from a freshman who has not been to practice. She goes out there and plays the game.”
Timothy also has been playing without 6-2 senior Emily DeBoer who is recovering from a leg injury.
“We will get stronger because of this,” said Strube. “The good thing is nobody is complaining about lack of playing time (laughs). Everybody has been able to play.”
Timothy is busy this week. The Trojans opened Metro Suburban Conference Red Division play earlier this week against St. Edward. Timothy hosts Chicago Christian at 5 p.m. Friday as part of the grand opening of the school’s new competition arena on campus. And the Trojans will get their conference rematch with St. Edward quickly on Saturday.
“We’re going to get better the next couple weeks,” said Strube. “The team will gel together. They work very hard and listen.”
The two games against St. Edward in a week’s time were necessary to accommodate Timothy’s annual Renew initiative at the high school. This year as part of Renew, the Timothy girls basketball team is going to the Dominican Republic.
“We’re very excited about the Dominican Republic,” said Strube. “We’re going to do some camps at their sports facility there and work with a lot of kids.”
In the team’s final game of the IMSA-Aurora Christian tournament, it was a 54-39 winner over Indian Creek. Sureya Alex had 15 points, four rebounds and three steals. Olivia Schuringa had 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists, while Hannah Schuringa had 13 points, 10 rebounds and two assists.
