Girls Basketball: November 2008 Archives

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Tina Akouris wrote in her Straight To The Hoop blog this afternoon that Bolingbrook Raiders girls basketball coach Tony Smith said freshman Morgan Tuck will not miss the rest of the season due to her right knee injury.

But coach Tony Smith wants to set the record straight about one thing in particular: she is suffering a setback, but she's not done for the season.

The rest of the Straight To The Hoop post confirms what The Brook Blog reported on Monday but with less detail.

Two points of contention: one, Smith has no way of knowing that Tuck is or isn't out for the season until the results of the MRI are known later this week; two, our post on Monday didn't say that Tuck would miss the rest of the season. I reported that she could and may miss the rest of the season.

Hopefully, Morgan is only out of action for a few days. The point is, who knows?

Make it three points of contention and the one the readers probably won't care about. Where did Straight To The Hoop learn of this injury? Did a little birdie fly into the Sun-Times newsroom and chirp chirp chirp about Tuck's right knee?

It seems as if Tuesday's post (19 hours later) was written to contradict what The Brook Blog reported on Monday. There wasn't any other report on the internet that said Tuck was injured. But we aren't shown the common courtesy of a link. Shady.

Bolingbrook Raiders star freshman Morgan Tuck injured her right knee on Saturday and may miss the rest of the season The Brook Blog has learned.

The 6-foot-2 forward said that she doesn't know when she hurt her knee during Bolingbrook's 42-28 loss to Ben Davis, but she woke up on Sunday unable to straighten her right leg or walk on it.. Tuck visited the emergency room on Sunday and an orthopedic specialist on Monday.

"It was hurting after the game, but I just brushed it off," Tuck said.

Tuck, who was walking with crutches, said she was going to get an MRI after practice on Monday night to determine if she has a torn meniscus, which is the preliminary diagnosis.

"I hope it's not, like, a tear," Tuck said. "Because that would be like the whole season."

The Brook Blog asked Bolingbrook Raiders girls basketball coach Tony Smith to give us a quick breakdown of his roster, telling us what he expects from each player.

Smith's take on the five players who started the season opener -- Ariel Massengale, Morgan Tuck, Satavia Taylor, Candace Nevels and Nicosia Henry -- will be published in Friday's Bolingbrook Sun.

Here's what Smith had to say about the bulk of his roster.

Junior guard Ashley Oliver: "I think she has a chance to be a good point guard for us. She's probably going to play a backup role for us. I think think she's got a chance to be a good backup."

Junior guard Mercedes Griffin: "Mercedes has a chance to be a great wing player. She has the athleticism. Now we have to add the intensity to it, and she's going to be one heck of a player."

Sophomore guard/forward Taylor Tuck: "We're looking for her to break out this year. She played as a freshman for us and we're looking for her to break out this season and show everybody that she's a player."

Sophomore guard Falon Edwards: "She's another kid that played as a true freshman for us. We're looking for her to come out that shell this upcoming season and have some positive time for us."

Sophomore guard Ciera Howard: "Now Ciera is coming back from an ACL (injury). She was one of our toughest kids last season. She's just going to be sophomore too. We're looking for her to bring some of that toughness to us there."

Junior center Marissa Taylor: "We're looking for her to be that enforcer for us. We want her to be tough inside, outside and be that presence in the paint there for us."

Bolingbrook girls basketball coach Tony Smith didn't want to open the season on Saturday playing Ben Davis -- a nationally ranked program from Indianapolis -- so Bolingbrook scheduled Tuesday night's season opener against Morgan Park of the Chicago Public League.

The 98-49 rout of Morgan Park in Bolingbrook served its purpose, which Smith said was giving him some teaching points this week as the Raiders prepare to play Ben Davis in the Blue Star Basketball Country Classic.

"I knew that first games are always rough games," Smith said. "Having just two weeks to prepare for a game is tough. Now I have proof to bring it back to practice and show them this is what we really need to do instead of saying this is what we need to do. Now I have proof to show them these are the things we need to work hard on and do."

The pressure defense was there. The quick offense off the at least two dozen forced turnovers (I didn't keep an accurate tally) was there. The hustle and the effort was there.

What's missing is a bit of refinement. Bolingbrook had its share of turnovers and didn't run many offensive sets, according to Smith.

"We are a long ways away," Smith said. "We have three days to get back to work and we're going to see how bad we want to be a great team coming up on Saturday because there are a lot of things we need to do. Unfortunately I didn't do a good enough job the first two weeks. Hopefully I can do a better job these next three days to get us going."

Sophomore guard Ariel Massengale led five Raiders in double figures with 22 points. Massengale, who converted five steals directly into fastbreak baskets, scored all 22 of those points in the first half.

Senior Satavia Taylor scored 18 points. Freshman Morgan Tuck made her varsity debut with 16 points, getting 10 of them in the first half. Junior Nicosia Henry also had 16 points and sophomore center Marissa Taylor added 10 second-half points to go with three blocked shots.

The Bolingbrook Raiders girls basketball team -- ranked No. 2 in the ESPN RISE Fab 50 -- has added a new game to the front end of its schedule.

The Raiders will now open their season on Nov. 18 at home against Morgan Park. Bolingbrook athletic director Alec Anderson told The Brook Blog that the agreement to play the game was formalized in the past 10 days.

Originally, Bolingbrook was to open the season on Nov. 22 at Blue Star Basketball's Country Classic. At the one-game showcase event, the Raiders will play Indianapolis power Ben Davis.

The Giants -- ranked 19th in the Fab 50 -- feature Big Ten recruits Alex Bentley and DeeDee Williams.

So instead of starting a new season against one of the best programs from Indiana in some strange gym in Champaign, the Raiders will get it going against someone willing to play the state runners-up on short notice at home. Those seem like friendly changes.

Now that the girls and boys cross country teams have been eliminated from the playoffs, that leaves the football team as the lone Bolingbrook Raiders team alive from the fall sports season.

Soon enough, we will speak about hoops, rasltlin and picking up the spare. But for now, it's all bout foosball.

The top-seeded Raiders will play at Hinsdale Central next week in the second round of the IHSA Class 8A playoffs. Maybe it will be on Friday. Maybe on Saturday. We don't know, we have to wait, just like the winter sports.

Boys bowling starts first on Nov. 11 at Plainfield North. Then comes the big shooter of the group -- girls basketball -- with its debut on Nov. 22 at Parkland College. The boys basketball teams tips it off on Nov. 25 in Decatur on the same night that the wrestling team gets going at Bradley. The last squad to get in motion is girls bowling, which will begin its roll on Dec. 4 versus Lincoln-Way North.