Girls Basketball: LoGrande gives Highland Park a boost
By mark perlman Contributor January 31, 2012 7:46PM
Morgan Bartelstein of the Giants (left) tries to recover a loose ball against Niles North's Angela Jones during Friday's action. | Joe Cyganowski ~ For Sun Times Media
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Updated: March 3, 2012 8:11AM
For the most part this season, it’s been all-everything star Lena Munzer scoring for the Highland Park girls basketball team.
Munzer averages more than 20 points per game, while the Giants collectively average less than 40.
Throughout the season, Highland Park coach Jolie Bechtel has been searching for that supplemental offense. Each game, there seems to be a new player that steps up, but consistency has been lacking.
Following last week’s action, Bechtel just may have found what she’s been searching for. Namely, Lizzy LoGrande. The sophomore has started the last two games for the Giants, and she’s certainly made an impact. LoGrande scored 14 points to help HP post a 53-49 victory over Carmel last week.
“We knew she was good enough to be here,” Bechtel said. “Now she has a little bit of confidence.”
LoGrande continued her strong play in Friday’s 48-36 loss to Niles North, scoring seven points.
“She’s a smart player who can shoot,” Bechtel said. “She’s also improving on defense.”
Standing at only 5-foot-7, LoGrande plays power forward, and has to battle against much taller opponents inside.
“Lizzy is just not the same person who began the year,” Bechtel said. “We’re hoping she continues to score for us.”
Recap: The Giants (11-11, 3-5) started out strong against visiting Niles North. Highland Park used a triangle-and-two defense to hold down the Vikings’ top two scorers, and the Giants grabbed a 13-8 lead.
“We thought we’d do something different to give us an edge,” Bechtel said. “We hadn’t played the triangle-and-two all year.”
But in the end, it was the Giants’ offense hampering the triangle-and-two strategy, as a host of HP turnovers (20) led to easy offensive baskets for Niles North. It also didn’t help matters that Highland Park was just 12-for-53 (23 percent) from the field.
“We’ve had problems all year with turnovers and shooting,” Bechtel said.
Munzer led the attack with 22 points.
Fab frosh: Highland Park’s freshman team leads the CSL North with an 8-0 record (12-3 overall), having clinched at least a tie for the conference title. Coach Sari Hirsch’s team visits Glenbrook North Friday for a 4:30 p.m. tipoff.
In Friday’s 41-26 victory over Niles North, Sydney Levenfeld scored 14 points, while Grace Quirk and Rachel Retsky each scored nine. In addition to those three being primary contributors all year, Hirsch pointed to the play of Nikki Shiner, who was a key component for the Giants until injuring her knee.
On the schedule: Highland Park will visit Northbrook to face Glenbrook North in a Central Suburban League North contest at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
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