“Things Change,” the 1988 David Mamet movie, would be an appropriate title to explain what has happened to Briana Dunlap this season.
The Hillcrest guard was looking forward to her senior year and playing alongside fellow NCAA Division I recruit Meshia Reed. Instead, Reed departed the state, leaving Dunlap the only returning senior starter for the Hawks.
“I knew I had to contribute more, to make my team better,” Dunlap says.
Contribute she did to an 11-1 start when things changed again. Dunlap scored a career-high 41 points against Rich South on Dec. 27 in an opening-round game of the Hawks’ holiday tournament. Two days later she was held to a season-low six in a game dominated by Marist.
What did she learn?
“I learned to stop fouling so much,” says Dunlap, who had picked up her fourth by the second quarter.
What fans at Willowbrook this weekend can learn is that there’s more to the McDonald’s Shootout than Saturday’s 7 p.m. game between No. 1 Fenwick and No. 2 Bolingbrook.
That contest will feature some of the best talent in the area–seniors Alison Jackson and Devereaux Peters of Fenwick and seniors Samantha Woods and Brittney Thomas of Bolingbrook. USA Today ranks unbeaten Fenwick (17-0) No. 2 nationally and the Raiders (15-1) No. 9.
But there are 15 other games and some must-see talent in this weekend’s event.
Two of the most intriguing might be the games involving South Bend Washington, which is led by sophomore guard Skylar Diggins. Washington (15-1) faces Young on Friday and New Trier (with 6-foot-5-inch Amy Jaeschke) on Saturday.
Dunlap and her teammates get to showcase their skills in Monday’s last game against Wheaton Warrenville South and Brigham Young-bound Keilani Moeaki.
Dunlap has more than 1,600 points and could break into the Top 10 of the state’s all-time three-point shooters. She had 241 going into Thursday’s game against Shepard.
While she is averaging 20.6 points, 5.8 assists and 4.4 steals, Dunlap also is taking on other responsibilities for the Hawks. One of them is helping freshman starter Uniquah Hampton.
“At first, she was kind of scared,” Dunlap, the team’s lone captain, says of Hampton. “But I think she’s getting better and better. I try to keep it positive.”
Dunlap may be having an effect. Hampton is averaging 10 points, 6.8 rebounds, 6.5 steals and 3.8 assists.
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asutton@tribune.com
