Girls basketball: Fast start, Brooke Spychalski’s hot shooting help Yorkville past Ottawa

OTTAWA – The Yorkville girls basketball team was off and running from the opening tip of Monday’s game against Ottawa at Kingman Gymnasium.

The Foxes scored the contest’s opening eight points, all in transition, and held a 10-point advantage at halftime. Then junior guard Brooke Spychalski scored on her team’s first four possessions of the second half, including three shots from beyond the arc, to increase the visitors lead in an eventual 55-38 win..

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Yorkville's Brooke Spychalski shoots a shot over Ottawa's Ella Schmitz on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023 at Kingman Gym. (Scott Anderson)

Spychalski netted 11 of her game-high 26 points in the third quarter and finished 9-of-12 shooting overall and 5 of 8 from 3-point range.

With Brooke, it’s if you have the open shot, no hesitation, take it. She has the ability to get on a roll like she did in the third quarter. She gave us the lift we needed in the third quarter to really put us in a comfortable position on the scoreboard.”

—  Kim Wensits, Yorkville girls basketball coach

“I was just letting it fly,” she said. “I shot the ball with confidence the whole game, but I just felt like I couldn’t miss in the third quarter. It’s hard to describe the feeling like I had in the third quarter, it’s really just like you have no doubts in your mind that when you put the ball up it’s going in.”

Spychalski and Kenzie Sweeney each scored a pair of hoops in the opening 1 minute, 15 seconds of the game, while the hosts misfired on their first seven shots.

“Our game plan is always to run,” Yorkville coach Kim Wensits said, her team now 5-2 on the season. “I feel we are at our best when we can get into transition, get up and down the floor and get some baskets without allowing our opponent to get set up in their defense. We were able to do that pretty effectively tonight.

“We had a huge defensive focus coming in. Ottawa runs such good sets in the halfcourt and usually get great looks from them. We talked before the game about playing solid defense, communicating and then grabbing the rebound and getting it going the other way.

“With Brooke, it’s if you have the open shot, no hesitation, take it. She has the ability to get on a roll like she did in the third quarter. She gave us the lift we needed in the third quarter to really put us in a comfortable position on the scoreboard.”

Yorkville led 12-3 after one, and in the second, Ottawa’s Skylar Dorsey splashed a trio of 3s, but Spychalski’s eight points in the period kept the Foxes in front 28-18 at halftime.

Spychalski then opened the third with 3s from top of the key and both wings before scoring on a drive that extended to Foxes lead to 41-20 midway into the quarter.

Sweeney posted eight points for Yorkville, which shoot 57% (22 of 42) from the field and held a 36-20 advantage on the boards. Mady Spychalski had six points and six rebounds, and Lainey Gussman (six rebounds), Allesha Peterson (five rebounds, three assists) and Sydney McCabe registered five points each.

“I thought we all communicated well on defense, and we also did a good job in transition,” Brooke Spychalski said. “Ottawa’s offense is one that you have to talk to your teammates with all the screens and misdirection. I felt like we did a good job of not allowing too many easy looks for them.”

Dorsey paced Ottawa with 12 points on four 3s and five rebounds. Kendall Lowery (four rebounds, four assists) and Ashlynn Ganiere each added nine points.

“They killed us in transition, especially right off the bat,” Ottawa coach Brent Moore said, his squad falling to 5-4. “Yorkville is one of the tougher teams on our schedule and we’ve had some really good battles against them over the years. But tonight, it seemed we were just a step behind in everything we did. We allowed Yorkville to push the pace and gave up way too many open looks. When a team has players that can shoot well, giving them open shots just drives up the chances of them making them. Unfortunately, you saw that really play out in the third quarter.

“It’s my job personally to make sure we stay together as a collective unit, fix the mistakes we made tonight, and get ready for two tough road games later this week against Kaneland and Sycamore.”

Yorkville is back in action Tuesday hosting Oswego in a Southwest Prairie Conference game. Ottawa travels to take on Kaneland in an Interstate 8 Conference game on Wednesday.