Girls Basketball: Trinity rolls past Oak Park

Updated: November 15, 2011 10:01PM

With DePaul-bound forward Megan Podkowa back, No. 5 Trinity has high expectations this season.

The Blazers didn’t waste any time in its season opener Tuesday night against neighborhood rival Oak Park-River Forest. Podkowa scored a game-high 20 points and added eight rebounds and Trinity held the Huskies without a basket for nearly seven minutes during a 63-33 rout in River Forest.

The Huskies committed three turnovers before scoring their first point on a steal and layup by Walther Lutheran transfer Cuya Hall. It was a sign of future struggles for OPRF, which committed 20 turnovers in the first half to four for the Blazers.

“That was a tough first game. You’re going to have a tough game,” OPRF coach Bob Biggins said. “We’ll have a lot of tough games. You’ve got to play [better] against a team of this caliber.”

Trinity nearly shut out OPRF’s leading scorer, Illinois State-bound guard Stekara Hall, who did not make a basket in the first half while missing all five of her attempts. Stekara Hall ended the scoreless string with a pair of free throws with two seconds to go in the first half. She made her first basket of the game to open the second half, but Trinity already led 40-16. The Blazers owned a halftime lead of 37-14.

“We expected a good game,” Podkowa said. “Our main goal was to lock [Stekara Hall] up in the first half. We were able to do that. In the second half, she got her points.”

Hall finished with a team-high 12 points and had eight rebounds.

Trinity led 14-4 to end the first quarter and took a 37-12 lead after going on a 14-3 run. Caroline Kelty’s three-pointer pulled the Huskies to within 23-9 in the second quarter with 5:05 to go, but then OPRF did not score another basket until Stekara Hall’s first field goal of the game.

The Blazers also beat OPRF 49-36 in last year’s season opener.

Lauren Prochaska scored all 13 of her points in the first half for Trinity.

The game marked the return of junior Mikayla Leyden, a Trinity guard, who tore the ACL in her right knee after the first five games of last season. Leyden was the first Blazers player off the bench and scored six points and added six rebounds.

“It felt really good [playing again],” Leyden said. “It means a lot for me to be back out there playing with the team again. In rebounding, I’m not the tallest, but I’m a good rebounder.”

© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.