Girls Basketball: History in the Making at Romeoville

JOLIET–Monday marked a historic day in United States history.

And it marked a history day for Romeoville, too.

Like Martin Luther King Jr., the Romeoville girls basketball team is trying to make some history during the 2010-11 season. The Spartans jumped to an early lead and cruised to a 68-22 victory over Joliet Central at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Hoops at Joliet West.

Romeoville is 14-4 and will post the program’s best record in more than two decades this season.

“This feels really great because we want to make history at the school,” Romeoville sophomore Briana Harris said. “They haven’t had a winning season in a while. We’re trying to get our team recognized.”

“She’s a good shooter and her range is phenomenal,” Romeoville coach Julio Carrasco said of Harris, who hit three 3-pointers on her way to scoring 11 points. “She sees the floor so well. In pressure situations, it’s great to have her in the game.”

Sophomore Kiera Currie led the Spartans with 14 points. Sophomores Abby Smith and Angelica Osusky and junior Hillary VanMeerten scored eight points each as all 10 rostered players scored for Romeoville.

“We just don’t have enough scorers,” Joliet Central coach Dan Drye said. “It’s frustrating when you can’t score. We got five or six stops in a row, but missed some point-blank shots. And we turned the ball over a lot. I think we had 26 or 27 turnovers.”

The Steelmen had eight baskets, one in the first quarter and none in the fourth.

“We’re young and our defense has been great,” Carrasco said. “We’ve got some young legs with the four sophomores. It’s easy to move people in and out because they are interchangeable.”

Romeoville busted out to an 18-4 lead after a quarter.

“We wanted to show them we could compete and we wanted to take them out of their game early,” Harris said.

“We wanted to make sure we took (guard Damica Myers) out of the game,” Carrasco said. “I thought Precious (Williams) and later, Abby, did a good job on her.”

“They scouted us pretty well and denied her the ball pretty good,” Drye said.

The lead was 25-12 on a putback by VanMeerten with 2:30 left in the second quarter. Currie’s slashing drive and basket made it 33-15 with 1:15 to play.

Smith fed Raquel Sessoms for a layup and a 35-16 halftime advantage.

Romeoville led 48-22 after three quarters. Joliet Central did not score in the final stanza.

“I thought we did some good things on defense,” Drye said. “We hustled and rebounded. We just can’t score. We were playing good defense. We just can’t score.”

Brianna Marble had eight points and Myers scored seven for the Steelmen (3-16).