Inexperienced Trojans Learning on the Job

With no returning starters and only two players who saw significant playing time at the varsity level last year, girls basketball team figured to struggle this winter.

That’s exactly what has happened. The Trojans have lost six straight games following Tuesday night’s 65-40 West Suburban Conference Silver Division loss at Hinsdale Central, dropping their record to 2-7 overall and 0-4 in league play.

But the future is far from gloomy and Downers North Coach Leslie Dehn knows her club will take its lumps at times.

“We just came off of playing some really tough games against Glenbard West [a 47-39 loss] and [Oak Park – a 63-57 loss] and tonight we got outhustled,” Dehn said. “They had more energy than us. I think on the offensive boards they were definitely hurting us there and we just made some poor decisions on the court.”

The visiting Trojans began the game in good form, twice taking early leads, with senior Mary Echemann’s driving layup giving them a 10-9 edge with 2:01 left in the first quarter. But Hinsdale Central’s star freshman Gabrielle Rush sank a three-pointer to trigger a 28-9 run that gave the Red Devils (3-6, 2-3) a 37-19 halftime lead. Trojans never got closer than 17 points in the second half. Rush finished with a game-high 18 points and 10 rebounds and also had five steals and four assists.

“It was a tough game for our kids because we didn’t play as well as we have the potential to play,” Dehn said. “We’re a better team than what we showed tonight. We have some talented kids and we play usually pretty good as a team and we’ve been doing that the past couple games. Today we were just out of sync.

“Credit Hinsdale Central. They shot really well and it wasn’t just one kid and then they had the inside game going. They are tall across the board.”

The Trojans are not tall, with the 5-10 Echemann and 6-0 senior center Christine Sydelko the only players taller than 5-8. But what they lack in height they make up for in scrappiness.

Two players who personify that attitude are 5-8 sophomore guard Sarah Costello, who pulled down a team-high nine rebounds, and 5-7 freshman guard Izzy Greenblatt.

Greenblatt, the youngest player on the team, had nine points and three steals, with six of her points coming early in the third quarter. The rookie flashed some of her potential with back-to-back driving layups, the second of which she set up by making a steal at midcourt.

“Izzy has brought us a lot of great minutes,” Dehn said. “I think even today she was battling. Even at the end she was hustling out there, she’d get on the floor for loose balls.

“I don’t think she plays like a freshman at times. I think she plays like she has experience and I think we’re going to see her continue to grow throughout the season.”

Even though she’s a starter and plays as well as the older kids, Greenblatt is still self-conscious of being a freshman. Befitting her youth, her teammates require her to carry the team’s medical kit on road trips.

“It’s hard especially because you feel like this isn’t my place and it’s hard getting used to it because you basically criticize yourself on everything, even if it’s just one bad pass,” Greenblatt said. “I’m younger and I’m new but I feel like that I’ve been giving my best effort doing what I can do and playing my game and not letting being younger than everybody get to my head.”

Greenblatt is smart enough to realize this will be a rebuilding season and that progress will be gradual.

“I think we definitely have a lot more potential than what we showed tonight,” Greenblatt said. “I feel like we just aren’t in a rhythm yet. We’re all new.

“I think we are just getting into it and trying to find how our team is all going to fit together and work together in order to reach our goal. We may not win every game but we’re going to play our hearts out.”

Offense is always the toughest part of the game for inexperienced teams to excel at and the Trojans have had their share of frustration. That included a 6 of 17 performance from the free-throw line and 16 of 53 effort from the field against the Red Devils.

“It’s hard to score points against anyone when everyone is not playing together as one unit, if it’s just a bunch of individuals playing for themselves, not really getting into our offense,” Greenblatt said. “[In games] when we ran our offense we did really well.”

Junior forward Mary Bedalov led the Trojans with 12 points and six rebounds, sinking 5 of 7 shots from the floor. Echemann added 10 points, six rebounds and three assists and senior Amanda Jirka added five points and six boards off the bench.

“The expectations are we are trying to get a little bit better every day, so it’s back to practice,” said Dehn, whose team hosts Proviso West on Friday. “We want our kids to play up to their potential and we’re going to feel that we have success when we do that. At moments we’ve done that and we’ve played really well together and then we’ve had moments like this when we just weren’t jelling.”