State Farm Holiday Classic Notes 

(Games I watched in-part or full)

Washington vs. Bloomington (Tuesday)

Against Bloomington, I watched Bradley-signee Claire McDougall be just relentless in man-to-man defense.

Was quite impressed with some of the passing I saw from Carly Vaughn, and tough rebounding around the bucket from Addie Kimler. 

Katie Barger looked like the best athlete on the floor for the Raiders. She had a game-high 18. 

https://twitter.com/StaabAlex/status/1607799388016984069

Brimfield vs. El Paso-Gridley (Tuesday)

Brimfield moves the ball very well. Ava Heinz is leading the way and her team is  doing just fine in Year 1 under coach Josh McKown. 

Adam Duvall, who does as good a job covering girls basketball as near any preps reporter in Illinois does, wrote this about Brimfield  recently. 

Rock Falls Bloomington Central Catholic (Tuesday) 

BCC made good decisions offensively and kept Rock Falls off balance with a zone press. Big senior forward Elyssa Stenger impressed in her time, and sophomore wing Lauren Emm (instant offense with steals) made big plays on both ends of the floor in the second quarter to help BCC go up. 

Rock Falls responded and between senior forward Emily Lego and junior forward Emily Bickett, Rock Falls was hard to slow down low. 

Senior guard Brooke Howard kept finding ways to make timely plays and hit a huge 3-pointer in the 4th for a Rock Falls lead, and the Rockets won 47-44. 

On another note, Daniel Herrera is probably the most vocal and animated coach I’ve seen in Illinois in a while. 

Kankakee vs. Normal West (Wednesday)

In a short stretch in the second quarter, Nikkel Johnson made some nice plays at the rim, scoring through contact and dishing off an assist to the other block.

Kankakee sited a young lineup between sophomores Taleah Turner, Benkwasha Stroud and some juniors. Freshman Morgan Baptist showcased flashes of knowing how to use her 6-0 frame. 

Normal West senior guard Emily Kobel maintained control with then ball in her hands. She utilized the ball screens of  teammate Olivia Patton and Annika Wertheim sto get downhill and to the rim, finishing well. 

Normal West took a nine-point lead into the fourth quarter and won. 

Paris vs. Rockford Lutheran 

Paris is a team that knows how to move the ball against a zone defense. They don’t catch and wait, they anticipate rotating defenders and find the open player. One example that comes to mind was in the second quarter, as Lutheran continued to try and trap the Tigers, but they just kept making good passes before the second defender in the double team could come. Sophomore Taylor Clark cut opposite to the near right block and took a pass and laid it in fora 20-14 Paris advantage. I saw Kendra Young make a similarly intelligent cut soon after for another Tigers layup. 

Senior Tigers forward Deming Hawkins’ wisdom shows up on the court by how she moves away from the ball, and it leads to productive plays own the offensive end. 

Paris used a huge second quarter to take to a 33-17 halftime advantage after what was a hotly-contested first quarter.