Gwen Smith making name for herself, drops 20 as Lyons tops Downers Grove North

DOWNERS GROVE – Who is Gwen Smith?

That’s the question many Lyons opponents have been asking lately.

One thing is for sure – teams better have an answer for the 5-foot-11 junior guard/forward.

Downers Grove North did not Wednesday, and that proved costly for the host Trojans as Smith erupted for a career-high 20 points to lead the Lions to a 40-23 West Suburban Conference Silver Division victory.

Stanford-bound senior forward Nora Ezike added 11 points, five rebounds and three steals, and junior forward Emma O’Brien had five points, five rebounds and three steals for the Lions (9-0, 2-0), who apparently have found a third scorer in Smith.

“Ever since summer, she’s been our sleeper,” LT coach Meghan Hutchens said. “All eyes are on Nora, and most articles you read are about Nora and Emma, and so Gwen does the dirty work.

“She plays really good defense. She’s a physical player, and she looks for her own, and she does well. And she’s a lefty.”

It appeared the Trojans (6-2, 1-1) might not have been aware of that last fact. Smith scored on several left-handed drives. She opened the scoring on just such a play on the game’s first possession and just kept going in sparking the Lions to a 12-2 lead.

“She was on varsity last year, and she learned a lot,” Hutchens said. “She started getting more minutes at the end, and now she has become a little bit of a spark plug for us.

“She runs the floor really well, and she’s consistent, and she’s a hustler, one of the people that can just sneak behind everybody.”

Smith sank 9-of-14 shots. One was a 3-pointer, but the vast majority of her baskets came in the paint via a variety of drives and floaters in or near the lane.

“I think the transition really helped, just knowing I could outrun the players, and then my teammates, especially Emma, could find me,” Smith said. “I also recognized they were letting me take the left-hand drive, so I really took the opportunities to keep driving.

“That’s more of my strength. I did take a lot of shots tonight, because I felt like I had the openings.”

Those openings were much too many to Downers North coach Stephan Bolt’s liking.

“I give (Smith) a ton of credit,” Bolt said. “I do think we did a nice job on Nora and Emma.

“We were not in tune defensively. I thought we dropped the ball a little bit and gave up some easy baskets that we should have prevented.”

The Lions, though, had no such trouble. They forced 23 turnovers, eight of which came in a first quarter in which they held Downers North star sophomore guard Campbell Thulin without a shot.

Thulin did score eight straight points, including two 3-pointers, to pull the Trojans within 14-11 at the 4:56 mark of the second quarter, but she scored only one basket the rest of the way and finished with a team-high 10 points, five boards and two steals.

Ezike stopped the Trojans’ 9-2 run by converting a three-point play, and Smith followed with back-to-back layups. That was the beginning of an 18-6 run by the Lions.

“Most people definitely focus more on Nora and Emma,” Smith said. “So I feel like when they’re getting guarded heavily and maybe have the better defenders on them, I feel like I have an opportunity to really use that to either create openings for them or find openings for myself.”

Ezike has known for a while what the rest of the basketball world is just waking up to.

“Gwen is a great player,” Ezike said. “Over the last few years, she’s really been developing her game, and we’ve been getting in the gym together, so it’s great to see how much she’s improved.

“She works hard, she runs the floor well, and it’s really impactful for our team.”