Trinity Girls Basketball Does It With Defense

The Trinity girls basketball team passed its screen test.

The Blazers clamped down defensively on West Chicago’s screen-laden offense to defeat the Wildcats 58-39 in the Class 4A Trinity regional final Thursday night in River Forest.

“They’re an unbelievable, cohesive offensive group,” Trinity coach Ed Stritzel said of the Wildcats. “They want to run nine million screens. They want to catch you finally on a little flex cut. I thought our patience defensively was just tremendous in that first half. The intensity was just unbelievable.”

Trinity (27-4) willed the game in its favor with a strong defensive effort on a night when its offense started slowly. West Chicago (17-11) held a 7-6 lead six minutes into the game as the home team struggled to get on track offensively.

But the Blazers eventually started to find their shooting touch, and they maintained their stifling defense whether they were pressing or playing man-to-man. The combination proved overwhelming for the visitors.

Trinity hit the Wildcats with a 25-3 run to turn its one-point deficit into a 31-10 cushion with 3:01 left in the first half. Taricka Linzy and Taylor Nazon each made a pair of free throws and Divinity Brown made a three-pointer to trigger the run. Megan Podkowa capped the dominating stretch with a three-pointer of her own.

“We started to get a run and then I think our momentum just kept us going throughout the rest of the game,” Podkowa said.

What about Trinity gave West Chicago the most trouble?

“Pressure, pressure, pressure,” Wildcats coach Kim Wallner said.

The Blazers took a 35-12 advantage into intermission after holding West Chicago to 20 percent shooting from the field and forcing them to commit 14 turnovers. The home team led by as many as 29 in the second half on the way to winning the program’s ninth consecutive regional title.

Podkowa led all scorers with 24 points. The junior forward shot 10 of 14 from the field and three of four from the foul line. She also grabbed 13 rebounds.

Nazon was the only other Trinity player to reach double figures in scoring with 13, but nine players scored for the winners.

“They’ve got so many shooters,” Wallner said.

Mary Connolly finished with 15 points and Claire Monroe added 11 for West Chicago.

Stritzel viewed the fact that the Wildcats made only 14 of 27 free throws as a telling statistic.

 “The game before they were 13 out of 14 from the free-throw line,” he said. “I don’t know what they were, but they shot very poorly from the free-throw line tonight. That showed me that their legs maybe were a little taken from them. I thought our depth showed tonight. I couldn’t ask any more from our defensive effort tonight.”  

Trinity will face Bartlett or Rolling Meadows in the York sectional semifinals at 8:10 p.m. Tuesday in Elmhurst.

“Our kids keep answering the bell,” Stritzel said. “We’ve got another tough challenge Tuesday, but someone’s going to have to play real well to beat us. I firmly believe that.”