Maine West's Season Ends With Loss to New Trier in Regionals

While Senior Night carries the heavy emotions of many players competing in their last home game, the reality of their high school basketball careers coming to a close isn’t often realized until the last game of the season.

For Maine West’s seniors, that day was Tuesday as the Warriors fell 59-29 to New Trier in the IHSA Class 4A Niles West Regional semi-finals.

“The seniors did a lot for the program as far as their enthusiasm,” Maine West coach Derril Kipp said. “They didn’t have as much talent as some of the kids we’ve had in the past, but they did a nice with sticking together. We’ll miss them.”

The Trevians (17-11) hounded Maine West (11-15) defensively, allowing only 10 first-half points.

New Trier raced out to a 12-0 lead only four minutes in thanks to a defense that forced seven first-quarter turnovers. Maine West missed its first six shots from the field before Stephanie O’Neil hit a three-pointer from the left corner to put the Warriors on the scoreboard with 1:39 left in the first quarter.

“They were bad shots and there were turnovers,” Maine West coach Derril Kipp said. “We couldn’t get behind, against this team.”

After the Trevians scored eight straight points, Maine West finally started to put together good offensive possessions. Amanda Hoye dribbled left and hit a running jumper off the glass and on the ensuing possession freshman forward Brittany Collins was fouled after converting a layup inside. The Warriors got a defensive stop and Collins scored on a putback after rebounding her own miss.

“I thought Brittany played pretty well under the pressure,” Kipp said. “She’s going to be a terrific player. We just have to find some guards who can get her the ball.”

New Trier allowed only one point for the rest of the half and the offense continued to push the pace in transition off of Maine West’s turnovers and missed shots.

Freshman guard Alexa Czyzynski fed a nice entry pass inside to Maggie Lyon for an easy layup and senior Abbey Schmitt hit two consecutive turnaround jumpers late in the second quarter to give the Trevians a 25-point lead at halftime.  

New Trier’s defense focused on pressuring Maine West’s guards and limiting the touches of Collins inside. For the game, New Trier held Collins to only 10 points on 5-for-9 shooting and Hoye had nine points for Maine West.

“I really like [Hoye]; she really does a lot of good things for them in terms of penetration,” New Trier coach Teri Rodgers said. “We really wanted to try and limit her and I thought we did a decent job of that, particularly in the second half.”

Lyon led New Trier with 16 points and sat out the fourth quarter.

New Trier, the No. 5 seed in the Maine East Sectional will face Niles West, the section’s No. 3 seed, on Thursday night for a chance to win a Regional championship.

“New Trier’s got a good team. I thought they were the best team in the area if they hadn’t had those injuries early,” Kipp said. “And they got Abbie [Schmitt] back which helps them.”