Kelly Carpenter and Kate Moore were more than a little disappointed after leading the Fenwick High School girls basketball team to sixth place at the Dundee-Crown Charger Classic last week.
That’s actually a good thing.
In a sign of how far the Friars have come in a short period of time, they posted a 2-2 record and finished 10 places higher than they did a year ago, when they finished last in the 16-team field.
“Honestly, even though we were 16th last year and sixth this year, I feel like our team is a lot more upset this year,” Moore said. “Because I feel like most of the teams we lost to we probably could have beaten. Expectations weren’t as high last year.”
The Friars (12-5) opened the tournament by beating Barrington 60-40, but then were upset in the quarterfinals by Hampshire. Fenwick scored 12 points in the first half of that game and roared back to send the game into overtime before losing 54-50.
“Most of our games go that way,” Moore said. “We have to come out stronger in the first half.
“I don’t know why but we just have to get ourselves to come out with more energy because we always seem to dig ourselves a hole. Sometimes we’re lucky enough that we can come back and win, but these two games that we lost in this tournament we couldn’t.”
Indeed, after knocking off Hononegah on Dec. 28, the Friars came out flat against a beatable opponent, New Trier, the following day in the fifth place game and fell 57-50.
New Trier (9-7) jumped out to a 31-21 halftime lead and never relinquished the lead despite a solid comeback effort by the Friars.
Moore, a junior forward, knocked down a trio of 3-pointers and finished with 18 points, while senior center Kelly Carpenter shined inside, recording 17 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
“Across the board everyone is scoring,” Moore said. ” We’re playing really good team basketball.”
Carpenter didn’t miss a shot against New Trier, sinking all seven attempts from the floor and going 3-for-3 from the free-throw line. But the Friars didn’t get her the ball enough.
“It was a rough game,” Carpenter said. “There were some things we could have done better. A lot of it was just listening to our coaches. We need to get better at that, but overall we’ve had a great tournament.”
New Trier led by as many as 13 points in the third quarter before Moore fed Carpenter for a basket in the lane. That triggered an 11-2 to run that saw Moore sink four free throws, including a pair that cut the gap to 39-35.
But the Trevians sank back-to-back 3-pointers to end the third quarter while the Friars missed a pair from beyond the stripe. Fenwick never got closer than five points after that.
“I think we need to just pass the ball better and not stare down our passes,” Carpenter said. “Our coach (Dave Power) says we need to not telegraph the passes.”
The Friars’ McKenzie Blaze and Carpenter earned all-tournament honors at Dundee-Crown
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