Girls basketball: Healthy, surging Sycamore looking for win against rival DeKalb

Geneva's Lauren Slagle grabs a rebound between Sycamore's Malerie Morey (left) and Sophia Klacik during their game Monday, Nov. 14, 2022, at Sycamore High School.

Since losing seven of eight games to start the season, the Sycamore girls basketball team is starting to click, having won 10 of its past 12.

The Spartans take that streak into the Northern Illinois University Convocation Center on Friday for the annual rivalry game against DeKalb. Sycamore also has won the past 14 games against DeKalb, including a 56-51 thriller last year in a game that was tied in the final minute.

“You can kind of take records and throw them out the window because the environment there is always like a circus,” Sycamore coach Adam Wickness said. “We’re not taking anything for granted. DeKalb plays good team defense, they’re young, they’re hungry, they got a new coach. Brad’s done a good job of keeping those girls excited about being in the gym and playing basketball. They want to try to shock the world by beating us. It’s been a while, but it’s our job to not let that happen.”

Entering a Thursday game against Naperville North, DeKalb (11-12 entering Thursday) had lost five straight and failed to crack 30 points in three of those games.

Ariana Smith has provided a scoring spark off the bench for DeKalb lately, scoring 15 to lead the Barbs against Dixon on Monday.

“We’ve been waiting for this one all year,” Smith said. “Last year I didn’t get to play, so this is really big and exciting for me. We’re looking to go in playing together and playing hard. From the beginning of warmups we’re going to be ready to throw a punch at them.”

While the Barbs have been in a slump, the Spartans (15-11) are riding a four-game winning streak into the showdown and are 8-1 in January.

Three of those wins came without 6-foot-4 Western Michigan recruit Evyn Carrier. Wickness said the center’s absence has sparked the team, especially Sophia Klacik, who has helped with the scoring load for a team that struggled to find options outside of Carrier, Lexi Carlsen and Monroe McGhee.

She’s been hitting a lot of big 3s in games,” Carrier said. “Our starting five finally clicked, and once we got out of those first couple weeks against the tough 4A teams and got some conference wins and got some confidence, it really changed everything for us. Once we saw some wins on the table it changed a lot for us.”

First-year DeKalb coach Brad Bjelk said his team is ready for the big stage. He said the Barbs have been playing with effort and energy all year even during the skid, performing strong in the second half of a game against Metea Valley last week and against Dixon on Monday.

“If we bring the energy and effort we have at the end of the Metea game and even [against Dixon], the energy and the effort was there,” Bjelk said. “That’s all we can ask for. Heart and effort are things you can bring on any day when your shot isn’t falling or you’re out of rhythm with what we’re trying to do.”

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