Megan Ganschow’s last season in a Downers Grove South uniform did not end as planned.

Her last two, in fact, were compromised.

But Ganschow did get to return to the court one last time, albeit briefly, for a milestone moment.

The four-year varsity player and Wright State commit, who tore the ACL in her left knee at Christmas, was back last Friday.

She took a pass from fellow senior Jakylah Thomas off the opening tip and scored one final basket for her 1,000th career point.

A pretty impressive achievement it was for a player who also missed her entire junior season with a torn ACL in her right knee. Ganschow is having surgery on the left knee this week.

“It was very emotional,” Ganschow said. “I knew it was my last game starting and scoring a point. Very emotional. Obviously my senior year, that is not the way I wanted it to end, but it was nice to get out there one last time with my teammates to finish it out.”

Ganschow at the time of her injury was averaging 17 points, 14 rebounds and 1.5 blocked shots for a Downers Grove South team that is unbeaten in the West Suburban Gold even starting two freshmen and with two sophomores getting significant minutes.

“When it happened it was like we lost a game,” Downers Grove South coach Lyndsie Long said. “The bus ride was silent. Everybody was in complete shock. Playing the game after that it was like what are we going to do, sitting down with my assistant coach trying to figure out a gameplan to best suit our team because we rely on Megan so much. But we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’re still in first in conference and have business to take care of.”

Ganschow is never one to feel sorry for herself.

Someone who always wants to get better and a great leader and captain, now she plans to be the best assistant coach to Long possible.

“She is very resilient; she looks at things with a glass half full lens,” Long said. “Even to get through one ACL tear and be super on top of rehab and therapy, she came back stronger than ever.

“She is an amazing athlete to coach. Sometimes when you have athletes talented in the sport there is an issue with coachability. She is one of the most coachable athletes I have ever coached.”

Long wanted to do something special for a kid who lost a year and a half of her career to injuries and asked the Leyden coach if they could score the game’s first layup, and Leyden could score another one.

“And of course he was cool about it,” Long said. “And everybody was just in awe of a special moment for her.”

But what Ganschow plans won’t be her last moment as a player. She’s discussed with the Wright State coaches about possibly taking a redshirt but will play it by ear with the recovery.

“Surgery tomorrow, after that I just have to put my head down and get back to playing,” Ganschow said. “You have to get over senior year which is hard to do. But I have another four years.”

Jordan rules at Glenbard South

Jordan Bailey is a player who has been on the Glenbard South coaching staff’s radar for some time.

The 5-foot-9 freshman guard has been attending summer camps at the school since she was in sixth grade.

And yet the coaches went back and forth weighing whether to start Bailey on varsity right away, to maximize her playing time. She started on JV for the first game.

“We ended up having some changes in personnel which gave us some flexibility,” Glenbard South coach Eric Daca said. “She joined us starting with our Romeoville game [the second game of the season] and I think she hit for close to 20 points.”

Now Bailey is one of four players averaging between 9 and 11 points per game for a Glenbard South team that is 16-4 and in first place in the Upstate Eight Conference at 7-0.

Seniors Rheayanna Ferguson, Jamie Mizwicki and Callie Hardtke are the other girls averaging around double figures for a Raiders’ team coming off a 26-win season and a second straight regional title with designs on going even further.

“The last couple years we have won a couple regionals but we got stuck at the sectional level,” Daca said. “We have always had the goal of extending our postseason run and with this group, with these seniors, they’ve been talking about it since the beginning of the year. They want to take the next step. The next goal is to try to make state.”

It helps to have a young, talented player like Bailey. She scored a team-high 18 points in the Raiders’ win over Riverside-Brookfield Tuesday.

“She’s a very good shooter,” Daca said. “It’s great to have somebody on the arc that we can have a kickout and we expect for the ball to go in. She’s a very good shooter and good ballhandler, does a good job of going to the basket.”

Bailey admitted that she was pretty nervous to make her varsity debut so early, but it hardly showed.

“I’ve been going to camps since I was probably in sixth grade and enjoyed the experience. Putting on the uniform was an honor and I was very happy to be able to make it here,” Bailey said. “I didn’t expect to make varsity but I was proud and happy to be able to make an impact.”

Glenbard South’s only losses have come to DePaul Prep and Glenbard West, both ranked in Class 4A, a three-pointer to Hinsdale Central, and by six on Jan. 7 to Trinity, a team that the Raiders could potentially see again in a Class 3A supersectional.

“It was a physical team and a tough game,” Daca said. “A big part of our success is we have a lot of seniors that have been in the program for 3-4 years and then we have younger players like Jordan and Julia Alcala.”

Downers Grove North’s big week

Downers Grove North (19-2) has a huge week ahead, a matchup with Glenbard West on Saturday for the West Suburban Silver lead and a game with Libertyville at the Coach Kipp Hoopsfest on Monday at Benet.

The Trojans got it started in a big way, beating Maine South 50-46 in overtime on Wednesday night.

Downers Grove North led by 11 at half, but Maine South came to take a two-point lead late in regulation. Downers Grove North junior Campbell Thulin, who had 22 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, hit two free throws in the final seconds of regulation to force overtime.

Ady Fanta scored 10 points with a huge 3-pointer early in overtime, Downers Grove North held Maine South scoreless in the extra period and Gianna Goodwin split two free throws with seven seconds left to seal the win.