Girls Basketball: Trinity rides fast start to win

You have to hope the sightseeing is going better for St. John the Baptist of West Islip, N.Y., than the basketball.

No. 4 Trinity (6-0) scored the first 13 points of the game and got 15 points and 20 rebounds from Megan Podkawa and 10 points and five rebounds from Taylor Nazon en route to a 59-22 rout of the visitors from the East Coast Friday at the Chitown Showdown hosted by Young.

St. John the Baptist (2-2) did not score until Brianna Thomas made the second of two free-throw attempts with 3:37 remaining in the first quarter. Trinity’s lead swelled to 27-3 with about six minutes left in the first half and 45-13 late in the third quarter.

“It sounds cheesy, it sounds cliché, but we have tremendous leaders,” Trinity coach Ed Stritzel said. “We know we have a great offense. But these kids are so focused. They have a goal. Their goal is to get downstate and to win it, and they know they have to work hard every day.

“They know they have be unified and they have to be unselfish,” the coach added. “It doesn’t matter who scores all the points. We need to defend and they bought into that. They’re doing a wonderful job pretty much making it hard on every team to get a shot up. It’s a special group to coach.”

Podkawa approached a career high in rebounds, although a few of those rebounds were her own missed layups.

“I was joking with her that if she could make a layup she would have scored 30 points,” Stritzel said. “But she was great tonight. I thought Taylor shot well tonight, and Lauren runs the show for us. We have a pure point guard. She has no fear.

“I’m biased, but I think she‘s the best point guard out there,” he added. “She makes the whole team go.”

Prochaska, a 5-foot-7 sophomore, had five points, eight rebounds and five assists.

“Our chemistry, our bonding on and off the court is really good,” Prochaska said. “We’re always hanging out together and making sure during practice that we’re always learning what each other does so the chemistry is always there.”

Running the show for a team with such high expectations doesn’t seem to faze the young point guard.

“It is a lot of responsibility, but the girls make you feel real comfortable like they’ll always be there if I’m in trouble,” Prochaska said. “They make me feel comfortable bringing up the ball so I know I can do it. The coaches have so much confidence in me and we all have confidence in each other.”

Sophomore Lauren Williams scored nine points and Brianna Thomas added eight points and five rebounds for St. John the Baptist, which was without its top player, 6-foot senior forward Anastasia Williams (concussion).

© 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.