After losing the past two games by a combined five points, the Riverside Brookfield girls basketball team enjoyed a decisive victory Friday.
The Bulldogs (1-3) defeated Oak Park and River Forest High School 53-35 at Hinsdale Central in the 15th-place game of Hinsdale South’s Brenda Whitesell Thanksgiving Tournament.
“We were moving the ball and getting into our sets,” RBHS coach Jordan Mack said. “The girls were playing with a lot of energy, and they did great. They feed off each other and that energy caries over.”
Senior point guard Mayan Covarrubias had 14 points with three 3-pointers as well as seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Other standouts included Julia Madera (9 points), Emily Organ (6 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals), Niamh Larson (6 points), Alyssa Morris (5 assists) and Arianna Hudson (11 points), who was injured during the game.
“Once the first shot goes down it always gives me some good confidence,” Covarrubius said. “We felt good today; we know we’re a good team so we came out and just performed.”
The Bulldogs lost their opener to third-place St. Francis 64-34, Nov. 14, and then lost close ones to Yorkville 57-54, Nov. 18, and Plainfield South, 74-72, Nov. 20.
“The first loss was definitely tough, but we felt like we played two hard games that we should have won,” Covarrubius said. “It was good to finally get a win [Friday] and perform well all around.”
“I feel good [so far]. We have great energy, everybody is positive, and that carries a long way,” Mack said. “Just a couple of mistakes that we’ll get better at as we go along the season. We’ll be able to change that and get more wins.”
LTHS boys bowling
Junior Cesar Izguerra is trying to be an example for an inexperienced Lyons Township High School boys bowling team this season. The Brookfield resident has already improved his average from 180-190 last season to 205-210.
“I’ve started scoring more consistently and higher,” Izguerra said. “I’m consistently bowling higher games and hitting my mark and picking up spares more consistently. Last year, it was a little bit like maybe I’ll shoot 170 [then] 210.”
Izguerra had a team-best 631 three-game series with a 223 high game, Nov. 21, as the Lions defeated host Hinsdale Central 2,930 to 2,285 at Suburbanite Bowl.
Junior Danny Haley had a 629 series and team-best 226 high game. Other high games included senior Jacob Healy (216), junior Conner Krishner (202) and senior Kalin Burns (183).
The Lions finished ninth of 42 teams at the Lake Park Invite, Nov. 11, and sixth at the Glenbrook North Invite, Nov. 4.
“It’s been kind of what I’ve expected [so far], up and down. We shoot well and then we shoot bad,” LTHS coach Gary Morrill said. “It’s more about watching and trying to progress and figure out things to work on.”
The Lions are going for their third straight team state berth, yet Izguerra and Danny Haley are the lone returnees from the 2023 state lineup. Krishner and freshman starter Anthony Bonilla are first-year team members.
“Once they get more comfortable, they should be scoring as well as everybody else,” Izguerra said. “[Danny and I] are just trying to lead the team to start improving and start scoring higher at the invites.”
Girls gymnastics
Lyons Township (128.50 points) and Riverside Brookfield (116.00) finished fifth and seventh at the nine-team season-opening Hornet Invitational, Nov. 22, at Hinsdale South.
Sophomore Kayla Janusz was a top-10 individual medal winner for the Bulldogs by sharing ninth on floor exercise (8.45). Other team-best scores were Janusz in all-around (30.20) and vault (8.1) and juniors Tanya Hertogs on balance beam (7.45) and Reese Phelan on uneven parallel bars (7.25).
LTHS junior Dahlia Highland was fifth on vault (9.15) and eighth on uneven bars (8.0). Freshman Brynn Krantz was seventh in all-around (32.60), tied for seventh on beam (8.25) and was eighth on floor (8.6). Junior Emmy Bertucci was 10th on beam (8.15) and 11th in all-around (31.15).
