Lions Struggle to Put Points on the Board

The Lisle girls couldn’t make up second quarter deficit and fall to Chicago Christian in the first night of the Lisle Holiday Cage Classic.

The Lions and Chicago Christian Knights squared off on the opening day of the Lisle High School’s Holiday Cage Classic.  The Knights played an aggressive game on the boards while the Lions had problems getting the ball to drop, resulting in a Knight 43-30 victory. When the Knights jumped out to an early first quarter lead, the Lions matched up well.  The Knights moved out in front 2-0, but Syler Tomko struck back quickly with a three point field goal to put the Lions on top, 3-2. The two teams traded baskets early.  Kelly Urban was deadly with five first quarter points, dropping both a two and a three point field goal.  Darian Payne added a two but the Lions trailed 13-10 as the quarter ended.   Free throw percentage had a huge impact on …

• Photos (22)

Benet Downs Huskies to Win Holiday Tournament

Redwings extend winning streak to eight while snapping Huskies' streak at six.

Nicole Valentine is not the biggest basketball player around, but she stood tall at both ends of the court for Benet on Friday night. Valentine, a 5-8 senior guard, was a force inside and outside, scoring 16 points and pulling down nine rebounds to help the host Redwings knock off Naperville North 76-60 in the championship game of the Benet/Naperville North Holiday Tournament in Lisle. The victory was the eighth straight for Benet (12-4), which snapped Naperville North’s six-game winning streak. “We knew that defense and rebounds would win the game,” Valentine said. “That’s usually our motto. Even though we are small, we work on boxing out every single practice and we just have continually gotten better and better at it.” Valentine is one …

• Photos (4)

Benedictine Women Defeat Aurora University

The Eagles edge out the Spartans 58-44 on Thursday night.

from Benedictine University Benedictine University used a 27-16 first half lead to defeat rival Aurora University, 58-44, on Thursday night in the Dan and Ada Rice Center. Both teams got off to a slow start, with the Eagles (8-5, 4-3) pulling out to a 7-4 lead with 15 minutes remaining. Neither team would score again for the next four minutes until a jumper from Jillian Lipman ended the scoring drought and put the Eagles up by five. Aurora (3-11, 0-7) rallied back to tie the game at nine with less than nine minutes remaining and threatened to take the lead but the BenU offense came alive in the final minutes, going up by as many as 10 with three-pointers from Karyn Conerty and Sam Hathaway and taking a 27-16 halftime lead. The Spartans …

• Photos (1)

Murray Wants to Take Lisle Girls Basketball 'To Another Level'

Players are successfully adjusting to their new coach, and it's showing in the won-loss column as the Lions are 7-2.

Change can be challenging, as members of Lisle's girls basketball team have discovered over the past several months. But they'll also tell you that change can be good. All this change came about last May when Lisle experienced a changing of the guard at the head coaching position. Dan Murray, who had been head coach at Immaculate Conception for 10 years—leading the Knights to a program record 29 victories and the Class 2A sectional finals last winter—was named the Lions' new coach, replacing Jeff Javior. Obviously, players were used to Javior, who had coached Lisle the previous five seasons. He had his system; his way of doing things. In fact, Javior's familiarity with this year's seniors goes back several years to when they participated …

•  1 Comment
• Photos (3)

Benet Girls Set for Fenwick Showdown

Redwings build on big win over Marist with 53-43 victory over St. Viator Wednesday.

Coming off a huge win over previously unbeaten Marist Saturday and with another big game looming Saturday at Fenwick, Wednesday's East Suburban Catholic Conference game against St. Viator could have been a classic trap game for Benet's girls basketball team. The Redwings did not allow that to happen, however. Benet dominated the first half, building a 24-point lead on the Lions and held on for a 53-43 win. "We felt good because we took our Marist win over and we were playing well," Benet senior Ashley Veselik said. "We came out with intensity because one of our goals is to win conference. We knew we beat Marist, but we couldn't come out flat against Viator because that would ruin our goals." An 11-0 run in the first quarter got things …

• Photos (3)

Benet Girls Fall to Bartlett for Second Time In a Week

Unbeaten Hawks hand Redwings third straight setback 58-44.

BARTLETT – Benet Academy's girls basketball team was quite familiar with Thursday's non-conference foe. After all, the Redwings had just lost to Bartlett by 12 points in the final game of their holiday tournament Saturday. Thursday, the results were strikingly similar. Benet lost its third straight game, 58-44 this time, to the unbeaten Hawks on the road. Bartlett (7-0) jumped out to a 21-6 lead after a quarter and never looked back. "They came out with a head of steam," Benet coach Peter Paul said. "We were way down. I thought we fought our way back, but you can't get down that far against that type of team. Give credit to them. They've got a very good ballclub." Things looked bleak for the Redwings (4-3) after Bartlett built its early …

• Photos (1)

North Girls Rally Too Late to Catch Minooka

Huskies fall behind by 22 points, unable to overtake Indians despite Bushman's 23-point performance.

AURORA – For the first three quarters of their 10 a.m. game against Minooka in the Warhawk Tournament at West Aurora Friday, Naperville North's girls basketball team looked as if it was still feeling the effects of big turkey dinners the day before. The Huskies did wake up with a solid fourth quarter, but it was too late to overcome a big deficit in a 51-43 loss, North's third consecutive loss after winning its opener against Metea Valley. "I think we were still in our Thanksgiving food comas the first three quarters," North coach Jacquie Discipio said. "I told them that I'm so proud of the way they fought and got back into the game. They need to bring the intensity and the fire like they had in the fourth quarter. We were loose, we were …

• Photos (1)

New Season, New Coach, New System for Lady Lions

First-year Lisle girls basketball coach Dan Murray brings history of success and a "cautious optimism" to the Lions' sideline.

When the Lisle Lady Lions girls basketball team opens the 2010-11 season at the Burlington-Central Tournament Saturday, first-year Lisle coach Dan Murray and his team will be ready.   "They're chomping at the bit and ready to play," said Murray, who brought over a new system his players have had to pick up quickly. The coach has "cautious optimism. "It's a little bit more man-to-man than they're used to. We're running a little bit more of a motion offense—read-and-react type things. The girls are excited about it; they're working hard. It's just a matter of getting out there and playing." Murray spent the last 10 seasons as the head coach of the Immaculate Conception girls team. While there, he developed a track record for consistent …

• Photos (2)

@Lisle Online

Attend Benet's Open House, Or Catch the Girls' Basketball Season Opener

Tonight's events, a dining deal, and other Lisle-related items that hit the Internet recently.

 Will you be attending Benet's big events tonight? Prospective students can attend Benet's open house at 7 p.m., or catch the Benet girls' basketball season opener at St. Ignatius. The Arboretum in black and white Photographer Pourya Koleyni took these stunning black and white photographs of the Morton Arboretum, showcasing its lakes and thick tree coverage. Want your kids to eat for free? On top of half-price appetizers, children 8 and under can eat for free at Evviva! tonight. The discount is valid for one child per adult. Are you a gamer? The Lisle Library posted photos from their National Gaming Day activities on Nov. 13. New parks brochure to be released soon The Lisle Park District announced via Facebook that the winter brochure, …

• Photos (1)

North Girls Hoops Looks For Resurgence

Following a fifth-place DVC finish, third-year coach Jacquie Discipio welcomes nine seniors to this year's team.

Following a decade of coaching instability, Naperville North girls basketball coach Jacquie Discipio enters her third year at the helm feeling that the program is slowly building up. The Huskies improved from a last-place finish in the DuPage Valley Conference two years ago to fifth place last year, going 7-20 overall and 5-9 in the DVC, and they return four key players from that squad and have nine seniors on the roster. "I'm excited for this season to begin," Discipio said. "We're getting better and better. I feel like this is the year that everything has come together. This senior group, they were conference champions as freshmen. I think we'll come full circle." The strength of the team figures to be in the backcourt. Shannon Bushman …

• Photos (2)