The good thing about this girls basketball season for Wheeling coach Rachel Bauer is she suspects opponents no longer are saying: “We get to play Wheeling tonight. It’s going to be a breeze.”
Wheeling had been the proverbial weak sister of the Mid-Suburban League. This is Bauer’s third season as varsity coach, and the first two yielded a combined record of 5-47.
That has all changed mainly because a 6-foot-4-inch junior decided to leave a school that won two Class AA state titles in the late 1990s for one that was rarely close to winning a game. Kari Embree transferred from Loyola to Wheeling before the 2000-01 season, making an impact for both teams: Wheeling is 12-13–a stunning turnaround after 2-24; Loyola is a .500 club after a 20-victory season.
The Class AA playoffs begin Monday, and Wheeling is only the 13th seed in the Streamwood sectional. That means the Wildcats are not supposed to have much of a chance against fourth-seeded Hersey. But the Wildcats got their biggest victory in years when they knocked off the always respectable Huskies 51-49 in double overtime a week ago.
“That was a huge win for us,” said Embree, who scored 29 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the game. “Unbelievable. It’s wins like that one against Hersey that make you feel good.”
It certainly made Embree, ranked as the 20th-best junior in the nation by All-Star Girls Report, feel good about her decision.
“Coming here and helping turn this program around has been good,” she said, “even if we’re not winning every game.”
The season hasn’t all been stunning double-overtime victories on the night of a big school dance. There have been disappointments, too, like Wednesday’s winnable game against Conant, a game that resulted in a three-point loss despite Embree’s 25 points, 10 rebounds and six blocked shots.
“With games like that, you get frustrated,” said Embree, who will be playing for the Illinois Hustle–coached by Fenwick’s Dave Power and Maine West’s Derril Kipp–once the club season starts. “But you learn from it. We’ll come out stronger the next time and be ready for Hersey.”
WHEELING, PART II
Wheeling’s Bauer, who played at Wisconsin-Milwaukee and spent five years coaching in the Badger state before coming to Wheeling as an assistant, believes the Wildcats would have improved even if Embree had not transferred.
“The girls were really looking forward to this season, even prior to Kari,” she said. “We didn’t have any seniors last year, so we were keyed up for having a good season.”
Wheeling has its own version of twin towers, Bauer said, in Embree and 6-2 junior Maggie Miskowicz, who is averaging 9.2 points and eight rebounds a game. Then there’s 5-11 senior Kristen Schwind, a co-captain who has been on the varsity for four years, and junior Monica Praljak. Bauer said Praljak had been the team’s MVP the last couple of years but has sacrificed her numbers with Embree around.
MR. STATISTICS
Jack Mathis, father of Fenwick assistant Jana Mathis, passes these numbers along: After the Friars’ game against Maria on Saturday, Fenwick (27-2) will have played 30 games–22 against teams ranked at one time or another during the season. Mathis used rankings from the Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today and state wire polls. Speaking of numbers, Fenwick’s Power needs only two more victories to reach the 500th of his high school career. That is likely to come Monday in the Friars’ Class AA tournament opener against Lourdes.
CASE OF BURNOUT?
Marshall coach Dorothy Gaters said Kourtney Walton decided to leave Rutgers because “she just doesn’t want to play basketball anymore. I think she’s homesick.”
Rutgers made the announcement Tuesday and said only that Walton left for personal reasons. The 6-foot Walton played in Rutgers’ first 19 games, averaging 7.5 points and 2.6 rebounds. She started in 12 of those contests for the 14th-ranked Scarlet Knights.
As a senior at Marshall, she scored a Class AA title-game record 30 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the 68-56 victory over Galesburg. Walton twice made the Tribune’s All-State first team.
THE PUBLIC EVENT
The Chicago Public League girls tournament begins Friday, and Marshall’s seven-time state champion Commandos (22-4) are seeded No. 1. Gaters will go for the 708th victory of her coaching career against visiting Amundsen at 3:30 p.m. The other top seeds are Hope (2), Washington (3) and Morgan Park (4).
