Girls basketball notes: Macy Madsen, Molly Wetzel set bar high at Johnsburg; plus end-of-season stats, notes

Johnsburg’s Macy Madsen and Molly Wetzel ended their four-year varsity careers with three regional championships, one from each season in which the IHSA held a state series.

No postseason was held last year because of the pandemic.

With the fourth-seeded Skyhawks upsetting top-seeded Rosary, 44-40, in overtime to win the Class 2A Marian Central Regional, Madsen and Wetzel have now won regionals as freshmen, sophomores and seniors.

Skyhawks coach Erin Stochl, now in her fourth year at Johnsburg, said the seniors have set the bar high. Madsen and Wetzel are the only pair of area teammates with three regionals since the start of the 2018-19 season.

“They’ve meant the world to the program,” Stochl said of Madsen and Wetzel. “They’ve set the bar very high here, and that’s what I told the rest of the team. They have big shoes to fill. They really set the bar for what’s to be expected here, and I’m very grateful for their four years of work and everything they’ve given us.”

Madsen, who averaged 17 points a game and had 73 3s, and Wetzel (8.3 points a game) plan to play next year at McHenry County College. Wetzel, whose 632 career rebounds are seventh most in team history, did not think she was going to get a full senior season in after she suffered a fractured fibula during the summer.

“I did a lot of physical therapy, kept working at it and I got cleared to play the first day of tryouts,” Wetzel said. “It was a rough beginning, but it was a great ending.”

Madsen, who this season became the 10th player in Skyhawks history to score 1,000 career points, said she is going to miss her teammates and coaches the most.

Johnsburg, which also is graduating seniors Bella Saxelby, Emma Rowe and Maddalena Biserni, will be counting on Gracie Notriano, Kaylee Fouke and Payton Toussaint to help make up for lost scoring next season.

“I’ve made so many memories these past four years,” Madsen said. “It was a huge part of my life and I’m never going to forget it.”

Tigers improve by 15 wins: Crystal Lake Central made the biggest jump in victories among area teams, going from 5-25 in 2020 to 20-13. Before this year, the Tigers had not posted 20 wins in a season since 1995.

Central also went from 10th in the Fox Valley Conference (2-16) two years ago to a tie for fourth this year (11-7). The 2021 season was shortened because of the pandemic, with Central only getting in five games.

The Tigers were led by senior guard Paige Keller (15.8 points a game, 77 3s) and sophomore point guard Katie Hamill (12.8 points a game).

Prairie Ridge was 27-6, leading the area in wins, and had the second biggest improvement in wins (14) after a 13-18 record in 2020. Cary-Grove (19-11) improved by eight wins.

Double trouble: Burlington Central senior forward Taylor Charles and Crystal Lake South junior guard Kree Nunnally were the only two Northwest-Herald area players this year to average a double-double.

Charles, who will play next year at NCAA Division I Princeton, averaged 13.5 points and 11.7 rebounds a game for the Rockets, and Nunnally averaged 17.1 points and 10.1 rebounds a game for the Gators. Nunnally’s 17.1 points a game trailed only Prairie Ridge’s Karsen Karlblom (18.8) for the area’s lead.

Charles also recorded the most rebounds (385) and blocks (116) in a single season for Burlington.

McHenry senior forward Alyssa Franklin came close to joining the double-double club, averaging 9.8 points and 10.5 rebounds a game for the Warriors.

Making it rain: Karlblom, who will compete in the IHSA’s “Three-Point Showdown” Saturday at Illinois State’s Redbird Arena, led area players with 88 3-pointers. Karlblom finished her four-year varsity career with 270 3s. She made 71 3s a freshman, 72 as a sophomore and 39 as a junior during last year’s COVID-19-shortened season.

Karlblom, the Wolves’ all-time leader in scoring and 3s, finished with 1,692 points over her career and averaged 16.1 points a game.

Karlblom could have cracked the state’s top-20 for most career 3s if not for the COVID-19-shortened season.

Dixon’s Tara Michels is No. 20 on the state’s list with 276 3s, according to IHSA.org. No other area player appears on the list. The 10th player on the list made 304 3s, so Karlblom could have finished somewhere in the top 10 with a full junior year.

Keller was second among area players with 77 3s, followed by Madsen (73), Marengo’s Bella Frohling (70), Burlington Central’s Rylie DuVal and Woodstock North’s Lacey Schaffter with 58 each, and Hampshire’s Ashley Herzing and Huntley’s Jessie Ozzauto with 56 each.

Great shooting: Prairie Ridge ended the year with two of the top three free-throw shooters in the area. Karlblom made 73-of-88 free throws for 83%, and senior point guard Elani Nanos was 60 of 79 (75.9%).

Jacobs senior guard Ella Tamburrino led all area players in free-throw percentage (minimum 10 attempts) at 83.3% (15 of 18), while teammate Mackenzie Leahy had both the most made and most attempted free throws (103 of 148, 69.6%) in the area.

All-KRC honors: Schaffter was named the KRC Girls Basketball Player of the Year and Madsen was a unanimous selection to the All-KRC team, which is chosen by coaches.

Schaffter, a senior guard, averaged 13.2 points a game and knocked down 58 3s for the Thunder, who won the KRC championship outright for the first time with a 9-1 record. Schaffter was a three-time all-conference member.

Also named to the all-conference team by coaches were Woodstock North’s Avery Crabill, Katelynn Ward and Gracie Zankle, Marengo’s Addie Johnson and Bella Frohling, Johnsburg’s Molly Wetzel, Woodstock’s Allie O’Brien, Richmond-Burton’s Joy Holian and Lyndsay Regnier and Harvard’s Julia Chupich.