Sixteen girls basketball teams gathered for the Braidwood Shootout on Tuesday, and Reed-Custer’s Alyssa Wollenzien was among the players taking in their final shootout with the host Comets.

While helping lead the Comets to a fourth-place finish, the incoming senior also took time to enjoy just being back on the court and playing some games with her teammates.

“I’m pretty excited to be back,” she said. “I just like being able to be together and playing against schools we don’t regularly go against. It’s just way better to be playing these tougher schools to get us ready for the season.”

The Comets opened Tuesday’s action with a 24-22 win over Bradley-Bourbonnais and a 36-28 win over Plainfield Central before falling to Wilmington 40-34 in the semifinals and Willows Academy 52-23 in the third-place game.

With Wollenzien, coming off a season in which she earned IBCA Class 2A All-State special mention honors as a junior, and fellow returners Harlie Liebermann and Kamryn Wilkey leading the charge, head coach Shelby Zwolinski said the team has attacked their summer work without missing a beat.

“It was really nice to see in these last couple weeks prior to today’s games, in our open gyms, that we really picked up where we left off,” she said. “We have a solid core of seniors and a couple juniors that got some great playing time last year. They really stepped up today.”

For Wilmington, wins against Clifton Central and Beecher preceded their semifinal win over Reed-Custer. The Wildcats then went on to fall 47-21 to Tri-Valley in the championship game.

With Sami Liaromatis, Keeley Walsh and Nina Egizio, the team’s three leading scorers a season ago, back looking to follow up the winningest two-season stretch in program history, head coach Eric Dillon said he was pleased with how the team was able to hit the ground running Tuesday.

“In the first three games we had moments where the games were really tight, especially in the first half, and we just overcame that,” he said. “I think the girls are really proud of the way that they played. I told them that it that’s a sign as to what’s to come in the season. I can’t wait.”

Clifton Central followed its loss to Wilmington with wins against Coal City and Peotone to earn a spot in the consolation championship game, which ended in a 42-18 loss to Plano.

While there is plenty of work still to do this summer, head coach Henry Hines said Tuesday was a good first step.

“This year we’ve got a solid six [returners] and a bunch of freshmen and sophomores, and they’ve never seen the system, so it will take a while,” he said. “This is only their first day, and they haven’t done anything. If this was two weeks later and we’d been in the gym and doing a little conditioning, this would be a little different.”

Peotone was able to wrap its day with a win in the consolation third-place game following its loss to Central, downing Dwight 45-41.

A familiar face is back on the sidelines this season for the Blue Devils, with athletic director Steve Strough occupying the head coaching role he held from 2008 to 2024 while posting a record of 347-121.

“It’s good to be back,” he said. “I missed it for a couple years, but it was the right decision at the right time. I’m looking forward to get back into it. It’s a really hard-working group of kids here who want to get better every day, and they’re fun to be around already.”

Also wrapping the shootout with a win was Bradley-Bourbonnais, beating Herscher 18-17 to take fifth in the consolation bracket.

The Boilermakers will have lots of new faces this season while senior point guard Abby Bonilla will be back to stabilize things, and head coach Kevin Maciejewski said he was happy with how this group battled through their first game action as a team.

“We’ve got a lot of players who don’t have varsity playing experience,” he said. “The goal was just to compete, and we did that. ...

“It’s wide open for our JV group to step in. We’ll see how that emerges throughout the summer and into the fall, and I’m looking forward to see who steps up.”