By Jeff Vorva
Staff Writer
Five area girls basketball teams participated in a monster girls hoops showcase and showed their skills to college coaches during the NCAA’s live period.
The first Windmill City Weekend Live Event took place June 15-17 at Batavia High School. Each team competed in a four-team pool and then playing a crossover contest against a team from another pool. So, it was four opportunities to shine in front of recruiters.
IHSA 2022-2023 Class 3A champion Nazareth, Sandburg and Mother McAuley finished 3-1, while Marist and Lyons finished 1-3.
Nazareth was missing some players but still owned its pool with a 52-24 win over New Trier, a 48-24 triumph over Hersey and a 49-43 win over St. Charles North. The Roadrunners were stopped 39-34 by St. Ignatius in the crossover.
Offense was not a strong suit for Sandburg, but defense ruled in pool play as the Eagles beat Marist, 26-17, Yorkville, 34-30, and Lake Park, 32-26. In the crossover battle, they lost to Peoria Notre Dame, 78-24.
Mother McAuley beat Lake Zurich, 46-37, and lost to Kenwood, 68-66, and Hinsdale South, 69-27, in pool play. The Mighty Macs beat Libertyville, 49-39, in the crossover.
Marist recovered from its loss to Sandburg to beat Lake Park, 48-35, and lost to Yorkville, 36-24, to finish third in the pool. The RedHawks lost to Butler College Prep, 48-44, in the crossover game.
Lyons went 0-3 in its pool before pulling off a 42-40 win over Hinsdale South in the crossover.
R-B tourney turns 20
Riverside-Brookfield hosted its 20th boys basketball shootout June 16-17. The Bulldogs and St. Laurence each finished 4-0 in the NCAA live-period event.
De La Salle and Mount Carmel finished 3-1, Curie and Marist were 2-2, Lyons and Oak Lawn each went 1-3, and Morton and St. Rita were 0-4.
R-B’s 6-foot-11 rising senior Stefan Cicic had a huge weekend. Cicic scored 25 points against Hyde Park, 20 points against Morton and 29 against Bradley Bourbonnais. The Bulldogs’ Steven Brown had 20 points against Morton,
Mount Carmel’s Cameron Thomas had 25 points against Benet. Teammate Angelo Ciaravino had 20 against Burlington Central.
Graham Lathan had 27 of St. Rita’s 30 points in a lost to Glenbard West and 21 points against Oswego East.
Brother Rice’s Cale Cosme had 21 against Nequa Valley,
St. Laurence’s Nojus Indrusaitis, a transfer from St. Rita, had 24 points against Yorkville.
De La Salle’s Bryant Hendricks had 20 points against Bartlett.
Steph Brown of Marist had 21 points against Romeoville. Teammate Adoni Vassilakis had 20 points against Lemont and 20 more against Romeoville.
Massey new EP coach
Andrew Massey is the new baseball coach at Evergreen Park.
Massey comes from a strong baseball family. He his older brother of major leaguer Michael Massey, who plays for the Kansas City Royals.
Massey will lead the Mustangs’ after spending two seasons as an assistant baseball coach at the school.
“We want to make conference championships and winning seasons the standard moving forward for Evergreen Park baseball,” Massey said. “Our primary objective on the field is to develop players who can play at the next level and learning how to win will be a part of that process.”
After a strong prep career at St. Rita, Massey played collegiately at Tennessee-Martin and Concordia (Chicago).
At Concordia, Massey made the All-Northern Athletics Collegiate College first team and won the conference batting title during his junior year in 2016. He was also named to the All-Region team that year.
Before landing at Evergreen Park, he was an assistant baseball coach for two seasons at Brother Rice. He’s a social studies teacher at Evergreen Park.
Massey replaces retiring Mark Smyth, who won 350 games over 23 seasons.
“Off the field we want to continue to build strong relationships with our players,” Massey said. “We want to stress that being a good teammate, student and member of the community comes before being just a good baseball player.”