A red-hot first half from Plainfield Central’s Hennessey Handy was enough for Team Mark to cruise to a 79-56 win over Team Scott Sunday at the Eighth Annual Voyager Media Prep Shootout at the Sullivan Center on the campus of the University of St. Francis.
Handy scored 17 of her game-high 21 points in the first half en route to being named the MVP of the game.
Her point total is the second most in the game’s history, behind the 24 points from Gabby Williams in 2013.
“I had a lot of fun. We communicated and played great and it was a good experience to graduate and be able to play in an all star game,” Handy said. “I tried to do as much as I could. I wanted to break the record because people were telling me it was only 24. I just like to go and go and go. I love the game of basketball and it was a great opportunity to play in this.”
Team Mark took a 9-2 lead early in the game and despite a run from Team Scott to cut it to 12-8, Team Mark broke the game open to lead 34-11 and 44-26 at the half.
Every player scored for Team Mark. Joliet Central’s Monica Barefield had 13, while Mia Farrell of Joliet Catholic scored nine.
“I had a great time,” Barefield said. “We had no bigs on our team and we had all shooters, so we just ran the ball. “
Farrell enjoyed playing with the area public school players.
“It was great to play with Monica (Barefield) and other players I have played with or against since fifth grade,” she said. “It was really cool. Everyone was pretty selfless for an all star game. It was a really fast paced game for us not knowing each other. We seemed to really gel and had the same tempo and ran with each other.”
Brittney Patrick of Bolingbrook chipped in six points.
“I had some old teammates here. It was fun, I liked all the personalities here, it was just a really fun game,” Patrick said. “It was fun seeing all the types of players and we wanted that (team scoring) record (81 points), we just fell a little short.”
Two members of the Class 4A state champion Benet Academy competed as Sami Valentine scored six points and Elise Stout added five.
Adriana Acosta (JCA) and Annie Carlson (Westmont) also scored five points each.
“It was a lot of fun playing with all these girls I had never worked with and seeing all the talents,” Carlson said. “It was great to see the great shooters and it was a great experience to play with the big dogs.”
Carlson’s Class 1A teammate Amanda Prete (Westmont) scored three points and Taylor Cogdell (Plainfield East), Kierra Tyler (Joliet West) and Kelly McLean (Downers South) all scored two points.
Kaitlyn Williams of JCA led Team Scott with 16 points, while Riley Eckhart of Maine South scored nine points.
“We started off kind of rough,” Williams said. “We didn’t really know many other people but I think we got better as the night went on. It was fun and different playing against my teammates.”
Morgan Jones (Joliet Central) and Jalynn Estrada (Niles West) each had six points,
“This game was really fun,” Estrada said. “It was a great experience. I’m really happy I was able to play in it. There was some great competition.
“A lot of players, this was the first time I met them. I think I knew like three girls playing. It was great to put the jersey on one more time. I think I did OK.”
Lauren Porcelli (Downers North) and Janelle Alba Garner (Maine East) each scored four points for Team Scott.
“It was a lot of fun,” Porcelli said. “I got to play one more time and I really enjoyed it. All of the girls were nice and fun to compete with and against. It was nice to see the different skill sets.”
Alba Garner was also honored with the Jeremy Izzo Character Award.
“I wasn’t expecting it and I was just listening and all of a sudden was like, I do those things,” Alba Garner said. “It was awesome. I have only seen like three of these people my whole life, so I didn’t know these other people even existed. It was nice to play with a bunch of good other people and put my jersey on one more time and represent them here.”
Alyssa Fink (Plainfield South) had three points and Antwanetta Boswell (Plainfield South), Diamond Dortch (Romeoville), Maddie McTague (Maine East) and Sydney Arlis (Minooka) all scored two points.
“It was nice and an honor to play with everyone else in the area,” Dortch said. “It was nice to play with some of the girls in the conference after playing against them the past few years.”
Jordan Heberg and Dana O’Boye (Plainfield North) and Ashley Hare (Joliet Central) also competed.
“I had fun,” Heberg said. “It was fun to play with some of the other Plainfield girls instead of playing against them.
“It was hard because we didn’t know how to play with each other, but after that it was good. We kept on going and played OK after that.”