When Naperville Central’s Candace Parker is on the court, things happen that you usually don’t see in a typical girls high school basketball game.
Take what happened to Dayton Chaminade-Julienne’s players Monday in the 13th McDonald’s Chicagoland Girls Prep Classic at Willowbrook. They’d drive to the basket only to play “Where’s Candace?”
They didn’t want to find the 6-foot-3-inch junior lurking to alter shots, block shots or force turnovers. She did anyway.
The result: Illinois’ No. 1 girls team remained unbeaten with a 59-54 victory over the Eagles from Ohio.
“I think we played a little bit nervous at first,” Chaminade-Julienne coach Frank Goldsberry said. “Obviously, Parker is a bit different than any other player you play against.”
Obviously. Parker had 38 points, 18 rebounds, a key steal with eight seconds left and a sore hip as Central, ranked No. 8 in USA Today, improved to 19-0.
“We really were ready for this game,” Parker said. “I’ve never seen this team so focused. [The Eagles] were nationally ranked (19th) and our ranking was at stake. It was a little shaky at the end, but we pulled it out.”
Naperville Central’s fans had to be concerned because a 15-point lead had been whittled to two–56-54–on Brandie Hoskins’ nice inside move with 13.2 seconds left.
The Eagles (13-2), who beat No. 4 Marian Central on Saturday, were on a 21-8 run. Central was hurting because Parker had picked up four fouls. Parker was hurting after going to the floor in the second half on a Hoskins charge. And Hoskins had come alive by scoring 12 of her team-high 22 points in the last 5 minutes 10 seconds.
But Parker wound up bailing out the Redhawks. With 11.8 seconds left she nailed two free throws. Then she came up with a steal two seconds later to seal the victory.
On a 10-point scale, Parker rated Central’s performance “an 8–and in the last five minutes of the game it was like a 3.”
