Sophomore Isabella Keberlein drove down the middle of the court, absorbing the contact from a Lane defender and flipping her layup off the glass through the foul.
Her three-point play extended St. Ignatius’ lead to four with less than three minutes left in the fourth quarter, It was a big-time bucket from a player still adjusting to varsity basketball.
She got her three-point play the hard way. For St. Ignatius, that was the story of the game. The young Wolfpack lost six seniors from last year’s team and have just three on this year’s team. The Wolfpack beat Lane (11-4) in a back-and-forth 61-56 game.
The Wolfpack struggled with turnovers and missed an occasional rebound, but they didn’t let their mistakes compound. Youthful blunders are expected, but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating for coach Cara Doyle.
“I have a lot more gray hair,” Doyle said. “You have to remember to find the balance between holding them accountable and remembering that they have not been on a varsity floor. Everything’s a new experience.
“I’ve been pretty tough on them this last week, and they’ve responded really well.”
For Keberlein, this is her first taste of varsity basketball. Down the stretch of the game, she guarded Lane’s best shooter and contributed offensively. She scored 11 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter.
Keberlein said she’s still getting used to the pace of varsity basketball but that her teammates have helped aid her transition. When she’s on the court, Keberlein has an unwavering belief in herself and her team.
“When I stepped up to the line, I knew in my head that I had to make those free throws,” Keberlein said. “There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to make them, and there was never a doubt in my mind that we wouldn’t come back and win.”
St. Ignatius (5-5) has played a challenging schedule even if they were a senior-laden team. The Wolfpack have played against heavyweights like Kenwood, Cardinal Ritter out of Missouri and Loyola.
But through those challenges, a team can grow and become accustomed to how hard it is to win on the varsity level. How disciplined you have to be. Doyle said this younger group requires more teaching than last year’s team, which won 27 games — a school record for all basketball programs.
“When you go into practice and you have seniors, you’re sitting on the sideline just critiquing,” Doyle said. “With a young group, it’s a lot more teaching. And the good thing is that our kids are very coachable.”
It’s also helpful to have a senior with varsity experience. St. Ignatius guard Audrey Mahoney said she’s used to being the younger one on the varsity roster, but she’s stepped into a leadership role this year.
Mahoney scored the first nine points of the game and the first six points of the second half. She’s a left-handed sniper who just needs a little daylight to get off a good look. Her stupendous shooting helped set the tone for the Wolfpack in both halves.
At halftime, Doyle posed Mahoney a simple question, one that invokes confidence in her senior guard.
“I asked Audrey, ‘What defense do you think we should run?’ That’s what good seniors do; they step up and take control. She’s doing that on a really young team, and that’s a hard thing to do.”
Guard Margaret Helms led the team in rebounding with 12, and sophomore guard Gabby Hinton scored eight points.
Mahoney finished with 20 points and three rebounds. She said she’s relished the gauntlet her team has faced so far because she knows the team must refine its game against tough competition. She’s focused on being a consistent presence for her young team, which is something she’s learned from last year’s seniors.
“I’m just trying to be like a force my teammates can look to, and not be over the place or hot-headed,” Mahoney said.
Kyle Williams is a staff reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.
