Girls Basketball notes: Timothy Christian senior Grace Roland reaches 1,000-point milestone

Timothy Christian senior Grace Roland didn’t play basketball competitively until sixth grade, but she quickly amassed big numbers.

The summer before her freshman year, Roland accepted the challenge of her Illinois Lady Lightning traveling coach and made 20,000 practice shots with help from her father, John.

“He probably rebounded (all) 20,000 shots. Every time I would just get up 500 every day. He’d always be like, ‘Come on. Let’s get up and go,’ " Roland said. “I would never want to but he’d always make me and I’m thankful for it.”

Roland reached another impressive number Jan. 5 at Riverside-Brookfield Jan. 5. The 6-foot-2 center and four-year varsity starter surpassed 1,000 career points in the Trojans’ 59-54 Metro Suburban Conference Blue victory. Thanks to her father, Roland knew beforehand she needed six points to reach 1,000. After a five-point first half, Roland was fouled early in the third quarter.

She sank the first free throw.

“I was kind of hoping it would be something a little more epic than a free throw, but you know, I’ll take it,” Roland said. “Of course, I was thinking about (1,000) during the game, but mainly we just wanted to win.”

Roland became only the sixth Timothy player to reach 1,000 points. Timothy coach Jill Groenewold said Roland could reach the top three.

“We are very proud of her and all the work she has put in on the court, but we are even more proud of the well-rounded individual she is becoming,” Groenewold responded.

Roland has attended Timothy schools since fourth grade and always was the tallest. As a seventh-grader, she made the eighth-grade team. She also improved as a post player through Lightning clinics Monday nights with Lightning founder and director Mike Seberger. At Timothy, Roland had Groenewold as her middle school coach. Then Groenewold returned to the high school head coaching position in Roland’s freshman year.

“It’s really awesome to have such a good coach,” Roland said.

Roland would have scored even more if not for her COVID-shortened sophomore season and missing roughly 10 games last season with three torn ankle ligaments.

“Who’s to say what would have happened, but I’m still very grateful I’ve had this opportunity through Timothy,” Roland said. “I think I’ve learned it’s really important to have people around you. Having my coach and teammates there for me, being able to rely on them, has made me so much better than I ever would have been by myself.”

Roland will play basketball at Division III Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre Haute, Ind.), renowned for its engineering program. She’ll major in mechanical or computer engineering.

“I really liked the school and the level of basketball, how they prioritize academics first,” Roland said. “Engineering is the perfect blend of everything I like (math, science, physics).”

John Roland played basketball his freshman year at the University of Chicago.

“He’s super cool. He’s probably my No. 1 supporter in everything,” Roland said. “He comes to all of my games. He records, makes little highlight videos.”

Benet’s long-awaited title

Perhaps the longest regular-season tournament in Illinois high school girls basketball history officially ended Monday. Naperville Central defeated Proviso West 53-26 in the Naperville Central Tip-Off Tournament finale after Benet beat the Panthers 60-36 two days earlier in Lisle to win the six-team, round-robin title on a three-way tiebreaker. Before Saturday, the last Tip-Off Tournament games were Nov. 26, two days after Thanksgiving.

“Honestly, it was just a schedule conflict and nobody wanted to lose the games so we tried to figure out a way to still play everybody,” Benet coach Joe Kilbride said. “I’d almost forgotten about it. (Saturday) had almost become another game.”

Benet (13-6) was supposed to play Proviso West Nov. 18, but conflicts with another tournament resulted in the rescheduled games. Benet has won every Tip-Off held since Kilbride became head coach in 2014. Back in November, Benet beat Carmel 61-44 but lost to Naperville Central 68-67 Nov. 26. Carmel earlier beat Naperville Central 60-31. Especially with final exams ending Thursday, Kilbride said his players probably didn’t realize that Saturday’s victory clinched the tournament.

“I don’t think they were very conscious of anything,” Kilbride joked. “But coming off finals, it was nice to get a game in that Saturday.”

Conference races

Area leaders after Tuesday’s games are Nazareth (4-0) in the East Suburban Catholic Conference, St. Francis (4-0) in the Metro Suburban Blue, Lyons Township (8-0) in the West Suburban Silver and Downers Grove South (8-1) in the West Suburban Gold.