Five wins and 27 losses. That was the record for the Joliet Catholic girls basketball team in 2023-24. They didn’t fare much better the year after, going 7-26. With a first-time head coach and a roster made up of three freshmen, this season didn’t have the outlines for much success either.

Early on, that wasn’t too far from the truth, but things have changed dramatically over the past few weeks.

Monday afternoon saw the Angels best Reavis 63-23 in the Peotone Blue Devils Holliday Classic Championship match. Winning a tournament of any kind would be a vast improvement over the past few years, but the game was also the seventh win in eight games. It was JCA’s fifth consecutive victory, all of which have come by 19 points or more.

To top it off, the Angels are 10-6 on the season surpasses their win totals from each of the previous two years. Another two wins, they’ll equal the combined total from that time period.

This is a team with four seniors, only one of which is a starter. Two freshmen, Emma Napier and Makenzie Keltz, have been key contributors with Napier starting. Yet this team has come along very quickly in the past few weeks. Faster than many would’ve figured.

“I think there’s been a lot of growth with all thirteen girls having games played together,” coach Matthew Adler said. “We’ve had a lot of new faces this year so it’s just taken some time to get to know each other and get into a rhythm. There’s also been some confidence building. With our tough conference you can get down on yourself early after a rough game or two so playing more 2A talent has helped us show some more skills.”

As Adler said, there’s been some road bumps. One-sided losses against Marist, Providence and Nazareth didn’t help the confidence level at all. But an OT win over St. Viator and a blowout win over LaSalle-Peru helped get the ball rolling before the current win streak.

“It’s been really helpful having depth on the team,” junior Emma Birsa said. “As we go into our subs we get better. We really are playing better as a team this year and always managing to get that extra pass in.

Adler also mentioned a strong improvement on defense, which was apparent Monday. Joliet Catholic scored the first 10 points of the game against Reavis and led 21-3 after one period of play.

The defense and offense kept rolling in the second. While Reavis closed the opening half on an 8-3 run, they still trailed 38-15 at the midway point. The JCA defense held Reavis scoreless in the second half until 53.3 seconds remained in the third. The Angels led 56-19 entering the fourth, when the clock ran.

“I think we had a lot of intensity today because it was the championship,” senior Abigail Dulinsky said. “It became kind of easier as the game went on because we were just so excited.”

Birsa led the team with 15 points, Dulinsky and Napier had nine each and Keltz chipped in eight. 12 different players scored for Joliet Catholic.

There’s still plenty of season left and the Angels are all in on this year first and foremost. Still, with so many talented underclassmen, the future appears to be bright on Larkin Ave.

“It’s very exciting,” Napier said. “We’re just going to continue to get stronger physically and more confident. We’re just going to keep getting better for years to come.”