WAUKEGAN, Ill. – The Cornhusker Shooting Stars Bison and Missouri Valley Eclipse 17U Red hardly are strangers on the tournament scene, battling each other a handful of times each season.
What make their matchups so enthralling are the similarities. They are self-proclaimed “country programs,” Eclipse coach Jon Lewis said, featuring a variety of girls who play hard-nosed, no-frills basketball.
“It’s ‘beat-you-up basketball’ but, hey, it gets it done,” Lewis said.
The Eclipse got it done Sunday at USJN’s eighth annual Windy City Classic in the Chicagoland area, thumping the Bison 61-43 to take top honors in the national bracket at the 344-team tournament.
Each team went undefeated in pool play, the Bison advancing with a harrowing one-point victory in a Sunday morning showdown against the Midwest Elite 17U Platinum. The Eclipse won its five Classic games by an average of 17 points.
They have similar players and familiar styles, so when the outcome turns decisive – the Eclipse led by double figures most of the game – it is somewhat surprising.
“They’re probably our biggest rival,” Eclipse junior Hannah Cook said. “We win (one), they win (one). It’s a great feeling to beat them in this tournament by that amount. We played great together. It was a team effort all the way around.”
Cook’s sharp perimeter play led the way, but she had plenty of help inside from sturdy 6-foot-2 sophomore Tyler Johnson, sophomore Sophie Cunningham (Missouri commitment) and emerging sophomore Latashia Jones.
Cook, who has drawn attention from Big 12 Conference schools and has scholarship offers from Creighton, Drake, Missouri State and others, has taken her game to a new level this year. Last May, Eclipse director Joe Erskine described Cook as a “happy-go-lucky” girl with great potential, an assessment that rankles Cook a bit. And whether accurate or not, she’s going to great lengths to erase it.
“I don’t like that,” she said. “I’m trying to fix that, trying to go 100 percent all the time. I’ve definitely improved my defense and just going hard the whole time. This tournament I think I went hard the whole time, and I feel good about it.”
Johnson’s work inside helped the Eclipse contain Bison post Jessica Shepard, a 6-3 Nebraska recruit. With Johnson keeping a big body on Shepard and the Eclipse guards pestering the perimeter, the Bison never found a rhythm on offense.
“We weren’t going to let Shepard catch that damn thing,” Lewis said. “We’re going to double her on every on-ball (screen), we’re going to make everyone else beat us. You saw them hit some threes, but you have to take something away. We picked our battle, and our battle was her.”
Meanwhile, the sleeper is the group is Jones, a 6-1 forward from Leavenworth, Kan. She moves deftly for her size, displays aggressive moves and can score from various spots.
“People don’t know about her,” Lewis said. “I’ve been telling my close buddies in the coaching world, ‘This is a kid you want to get on early because I think she’s going to blow up.’ She just turned 15. She just plays.”
And if that’s not enough, there is some bad news for the Eclipse’s upcoming opponents: Point guard Kylee Kopatich, who has battled a tender ankle and didn’t play in Chicago, should return to action at USJN’s Gateway Challenge in two weeks. Kopatich has offers from Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State, among others.
Bruins make it look easy
The Western Pennsylvania Bruins 17U team took top honors in Pools C and D with a 63-43 victory against the Spiece Gym Rats 17U from Indiana.
The Bruins’ game plan was simple: Take advantage of their biggest advantage. Post Erin Mathias (6-foot-3) had at least a 2-inch edge on every Gym Rat, so the Bruins made sure she wasn’t bored.
“We had a size advantage so our goal was just to get the ball inside to Erin,” coach Ron Mumbray said of the Class of 2014 standout, who has committed to Duke. “She played well. Naje (Gibson) had some great passes. She’s a very unselfish kid.”
The Bruins finished the tournament 5-0, and only one game was decided by single digits.
In their first year as a Blue Star travel team, the Bruins will show up at the USJN/Nike National Championships in Washington in July.
