Chicagoland Invitational Showcase: Top Performances
This past Saturday was the season’s first installment of the Chicagoland Invitational Showcase, hosted by Fremd High School. The event displayed eleven games featuring several of Illinois’ top teams, in addition to top teams from Wisconsin (Beaver Dam) and Indiana…
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Continue ReadingThis past Saturday was the season’s first installment of the Chicagoland Invitational Showcase, hosted by Fremd High School. The event displayed eleven games featuring several of Illinois’ top teams, in addition to top teams from Wisconsin (Beaver Dam) and Indiana (Crown Point). With these great teams, came dozens of high-level and intriguing players. Here are a few of the top performances from the day:
Lake Forest star and Wisconsin commit Halle Douglass was, once again, outstanding in the days first game against Marist. Offensively, the 6’2” Point Guard was excellent all around. She is a tough matchup inside with her length and athleticism and knocked down a couple outside jumpers, both off the dribble and from spotting up, netting 23 points in the game. Douglass is a tremendous passer with great court vision and makes those around her better. Defensively, I’m not sure there’s a better post defender and shot blocker in the area.
When watching Benet Academy play, you quickly realize that there are eight or nine players that could go off in any given game. On Saturday against Lincoln-Way West, it was 5’8” Junior Point Guard Molly Sheehan. Sheehan consistently displays great ball handling and passing abilities, and the scoring is starting to come. She knocked down five three’s and added a couple transition layups to lead Benet with 19 points.
Rivaling Sheehan for Lincoln-Way West was standout Senior Point Guard Taylor Gugliuzza. The 5’7” Lewis commit is a knock-down shooter from deep, but also displayed her crafty inside scoring in this game. LWW thrives at turning steals into transition buckets, and Gugliuzza is among the best at it. She finished with a game-high 24 points.
The lone underclassman on this list, nobody had a bigger day than Hersey’s Katy Eidle. The dynamic 5’11” Freshman Point Guard did it all, dropping 32 points and bringing 10 rebounds in a win over Bartlett. Eidle is a playmaker with the ball in her hands with the ability to finish at a high level at the rim or step outside and knock down threes at a high rate.
After eclipsing the 1,000 career points mark earlier in the week, 5’8” Bartlett Point Guard Lexie Sinclair added 25 more against Hersey. She can hit jumpers from time to time, but Sinclair thrives at getting in the lane and either finishing strong at the hoop or drawing fouls and knocking down Free Throws. She’s a defender that will wear opposing guards down throughout the game and takes advantage with steals and transition buckets.
In what was the best game of the day, Ambrea Gentle was unstoppable in Evanston’s win over Beaver Dam (WI). The 6’3” Senior Center put up 29 points over one of the top teams in Wisconsin. Gentle uses her body well to get position in the post and sets herself up nicely for easy buckets. Her footwork and post moves are very impressive, and with Evanston’s stellar guard play, she should be able to avoid a large number of double teams.