Girls Basketball: Red Devils Season Ends with Loss to Hinsdale South

Hinsdale Central finished the 2011-12 season with a 9-17 record.

HC Girls Hoops Looks to Overcome Slow Start in 2011-12

With a veteran coach's system taking hold, the Red Devils have already accumulated two-thirds of their 2010-11 win total.

Though the Hinsdale Central girls basketball team got off to a rough 1-5 start this season, a win at Proviso West Tuesday night might have gotten the Red Devils rolling. Senior captain Madison Grace called it “a breakthrough” win. “We all realized we need to work together,” Grace said of the 58-52 win against the Panthers, who were coming off a 48-29 win over Glenbard West Dec. 1, according to the Daily Herald. Grace, a center, said that when the Red Devils (2-5) play well like they did Tuesday, they’re—perhaps not surprisingly—playing as a team and making shots. “We had a lot of threes and we were working on defense,” she said. Head coach Tom McKenna, who is in the midst of his second season at Hinsdale Central after 23 years as head …

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Girls Basketball: Hornets Dominate the Post in Win over Plainfield South

Hinsdale South 49, Plainfield South 29. Hornets take advantage of their size to beat Plainfield South and move on to the regional semifinals Tuesday.

NAPERVILLE–Hinsdale South’s girls basketball team knew it had a decided height advantage in Monday’s Class 4A Naperville North Regional quarterfinal against Plainfield South. Hornets junior Uzo Okoro took full advantage of that from the opening tip. Okoro scored 12 of her game-high 20 points in the first quarter, including the Hornets’ first 10 points overall, to help push Hinsdale South to a 49-29 win. The win sets up a regional semifinal at 8:10 p.m. Tuesday against sixth-seeded Wheaton Warrenville South. “We knew going in that they weren’t the tallest team, so that was the focus, but we try to do that most of the time,” Hinsdale South coach Jen Belmonte said. “(Uzo) does her thing, which is nice. I wish it was typical. She usually gets …

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Girls Basketball: Ukoro, Hinsdale South Turn Tables on Downers Grove South

Hinsdale South 51, Downers Grove South 34: Center's 13 points, 11 rebounds key great defensive effort as the Hornets win on an emotional Senior Night.

Hinsdale South center Uzo Okoro was held to just four points when the Hornets lost 42-40 at Downers Grove South back on Jan. 10. It was a much different story Thursday night. The 6-foot Okoro dominated at both ends of the floor, leading all players with 13 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks as host Hinsdale South exacted revenge with a 51-34 drubbing of the Mustangs on Senior Night in Darien. The win solidified the Hornets’ grip on second place in the West Suburban Conference Gold Division. Hinsdale South (12-9, 7-2) has a two-game lead in the loss column over the Mustangs (13-9, 6-4), who have lost five straight games. “I think we prepared a lot better this time,” Okoro said. “We knew what to expect and I think we had a lot more intensity…

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Red Devils Play in McDonald's Shootout

Hinsdale Central's girls basketball team loses 49-39 to Chicago Bogan Monday. The McDonald's Shootout featured 31 teams from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

In its only game in the 21st annual McDonald's Shootout Monday afternoon, Hinsdale Central’s girls basketball team fell 49-39 to Chicago Bogan. The Shootout is a three-day event held over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend at Willowbrook High School. It features 31 teams from Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. The Red Devils (2-18) jumped out to a 14-13 lead in the first quarter, thanks to two free throws by sophomore forward Lily Sarros. Hinsdale Central fell behind in the second quarter, 21-16, but battled back to pull within two points of Bogan, 21-19, on a three-pointer by freshman Maddie Roglich. However, Bogan (13-9) closed out the quarter with a 10-0 run and led at halftime, 31-19. “We had a bad stretch in the second quarter,” …

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Belmonte Sister Act Playing Well at Hinsdale South

Jen Belmonte coaches Hornets basketball team, while sister Jackie runs the offense.

Hinsdale South basketball player Jackie Belmonte won't get any sympathy if she goes home and complains about her coach. That's because the coach is her older sister, Jen. While fathers coaching sons and mothers coaching daughters is a fairly common occurrence in high school sports, a sibling coaching a brother or sister is extremely rare. Such a scenario could lead to all sorts of negative issues, but not at Hinsdale South, where Jen is in her first year as head coach after serving as an assistant last season. "It's actually as normal as you can imagine it," Jen Belmonte said. "She doesn't do anything crazy (so) that I have to be like a sister to her, but I treat her like everyone else when I'm coaching. She plays like everyone else. She …

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Shooting Woes Plague Hornets in Loss to York

Hinsdale South girls finish 1-4 at Montini Christmas Tournament.

After turning the ball over 63 times in its last two games, Hinsdale South made protecting the ball a priority Thursday on the final day of the Montini Christmas Tournament in Lombard. The Hornets were successful in that effort, limiting the miscues to six in the first half and 16 overall, but their hopes of ending tournament play with a victory were dashed by cold shooting. Hinsdale South hit only 11 of 42 shots from the floor and fell to York 46-26. "We had a lot of good opportunities inside with Uzo (Okoro) and Natalie (Tomerlin); it just wasn't falling for them," Hinsdale South coach Jen Belmonte said. "We were really looking to push it inside to Uzo today and they were doing a nice job doubling her. "The kick-outs just weren't there. …

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Okoro Foul Trouble Throws Hinsdale South for Loop

Hornets play much of game without their center, unable to handle St. Joseph's pressure in second straight loss at Montini tourney.

Uzo Okoro is the only player on the Hinsdale South girls basketball team who is taller than 5-10, so the Hornets have a tough time winning when she's not on the court. That was made clear on Wednesday. Okoro, a 6-0 junior center, was limited to two points and two rebounds, spending most of the game on the bench in foul trouble as the Hornets were routed 65-41 by St. Joseph at the Montini Christmas Tournament. "We need her," Hinsdale South coach Jen Belmonte said. "It's not good that she's been in foul trouble like that. It's tough to win (without her) in the sense that we don't have that rebounding." Okoro had just scored an inside bucket, which turned out to be her only shot attempt of the game, early in the second quarter to pull the …

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Romiti Helps Hornets Gain Split

Point guard overcomes foul trouble to score 14 points in Hinsdale South's win over Bogan, which helped take the sting out of an earlier loss to powerhouse Marian Catholic.

Conventional wisdom said Hinsdale South point guard Toni Romiti should have been taken out of the game when she picked up her third foul at the 6:40 mark of the third quarter Monday afternoon.  Fortunately for the Hornets, Hinsdale South coach Jen Belmonte didn't follow such logic. Romiti stayed in the game and soon after sank a three-pointer. The sophomore made all three of her shots in the third quarter, accounting for seven of her game-high 14 points, and also assisted on a pair of three-pointers by Andrea McNally as the Hornets pulled away for a 45-35 victory over Bogan on the first day of the Montini Christmas Tournament in Lombard.  "I knew she knew her foul situation," Belmonte said. "Normally, in that situation, I would definitely …

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Hornets' Third Quarter Buries Leyden

Hinsdale South's girls basketball team employs a balanced attack to improve to 3-0 in conference play.

It's a beautiful thing when a plan comes together and even better when everyone gets involved. Hinsdale South's girls basketball team got contributions far and wide in a 63-38 win over visiting Leyden in Tuesday's West Suburban Gold showdown in Darien. There was Uzo Okoro giving the Hornets a "quiet" 19 points to go with eight rebounds, and there was frontcourt mate Natalie Tomerlin relentlessly pounding the glass. Jackie Belmonte was active on both ends of the floor and Toni Romiti was on fire from behind the arc in the first half. Add a stellar defensive game from Andrea McNally and positive minutes from Brittany DeClouette, Keke Thomas, Rayshauna Clark and the rest of the Hornets' bench, and coach Jen Belmonte had nary a complaint at …

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