NewsTribune Girls Basketball Notebook: L-P’s Brooklyn Ficek steps up in big spot

Down three points with 5.1 seconds left in regulation Saturday at Kaneland, the La Salle-Peru girls basketball team inbounded the ball to star point guard Brooklyn Ficek.

Ficek got a screen from teammate Addison Duttlinger and dribbled down the court and around a pair of defenders before hitting an off-balance 3-pointer from the left side to send the game to overtime where the Cavaliers won 58-55.

“What we drew up was actually expecting for a little more pressure, but we had Brooklyn going left and Jasmine (Garman) on the right side and knew we had to create a shot from 3,” L-P coach Adam Spencer said. “Big time players make big time plays as they say.”

Garman, who scored 20 points in a 55-44 win at Rochelle, will have a bigger role down the stretch as Taylor Martyn has a broken pinky and is expected to miss the remainder of the season.

“She’s starting to come on,” Spencer said. “It’s Jasmine’s first year at L-P from Roanoke-Benson. (It was a matter of) just getting comfortable playing with the girls, being aggressive offensively and not passing up open shots.

“We need Jasmine to step up and play an off guard, provide some ball handling, and spacing the rest of the way.”

White returns, Megow steps up for Fieldcrest

In a key Heart of Illinois Conference game against Eureka, Fieldcrest junior Kaitlin White suffered an injury that caused her to miss two games.

She returned to the court for the Heart of Illinois Conference Tournament.

“She was slowly worked into the rotation in the HOIC tournament games against Dee-Mack and Eureka and looks to be getting back to 100%,” Fieldcrest coach Mitch Neally said.

With White out and slowly working back into the lineup, senior Carolyn Megow has increased her production.

Megow has averaged 16.2 points and 7.5 rebounds over the last six games.

She nearly recorded a triple-double with 18 points, 10 steals and nine rebounds against El Paso-Gridley in the second round of the HOIC tournament and had a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds against Eureka in the HOIC third-place game.

Among the best

With its 56-36 win over Orion on Saturday, Princeton reached 20 wins in a season for just the fourth time in program history.

Monday’s win at Hall, their 21st, tied the Tigresses for the second-best record with the 2005-06 regional championship team that went 21-8.

The best record for a Princeton girls team was the 24-7 mark by the Tigresses’ 2006-07 Sweet 16 team.

Active on defense

Hall senior Jayden Jones has been very active on defense for the Red Devils.

She’s averaging 3.2 steals per game along with six deflections per game.

“Jayden Jones is getting about six deflections per game to go with 3-plus steals and it feels like more,” Hall coach T.J. Orlandi said. “It seems she tips about every pass that comes her way and she really alters passing lanes and what teams can do offensively against us.”

Jones suffered an injury Monday against Princeton and is waiting for an MRI to determine the extent of the injury.

Looking for positives

It’s been a tough season for Mendota as the Trojans are 4-19.

Mendota is inexperienced with three players who hadn’t played since eighth grade along with a player out for the first time.

On top of that, the Trojans had their “projected starting five” in the gym together on Jan. 17 for the first time since the day before the season opener, but one of the players suffered a knee sprain the next day.

“It’s been a wild and frustrating year between all that,” Mendota coach John Hansen said. “But we’re hoping to end on some positives.”

Showing improvement

Earlville has won three games in a row and five of its last six to improve its record to 11-13 overall and 3-3 in the Little Ten Conference.

Madyson Olson and Nevaeh Sansone lead the way for the Red Raiders.

Olson is averaging 19.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 5.6 steals and 3.9 assists per game, while Sansone contributes 13.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.9 assists per game.

“We are playing better as of late and stringing some wins together as we attempt to get back to .500,” Earlville coach Brandon Skolek said.