Junior guard Lizzy Shaw, seen here in Glenbrook South’s game at New Trier on Dec. 6, continues to step up her game. PHOTOGRAPHY BY TRACY ALLEN
Lizzy Shaw’s three-point shot wasn’t right at the beginning of the 2016-17 girls basketball season. The shortcoming bothered the Glenbrook South junior point guard, prompting her to come up with a plan to make it right.
Shaw stuck around after each practice to take more shots from beyond the arc.
At least 100.
“A lot of shots,” said Titans assistant girls basketball coach Scott Nemecek, who, along with head coach Steve Weissenstein, serves as a rebounder for Shaw’s “overtime” sessions.
Her improved marksmanship from long range — call it “Shaw’s sank redemption” — was glaring in a game at New Trier on Jan. 20. The 5-foot-7 floor general hit three of her first four trey tries and finished with a game-high 12 points (on four-of-six shooting from three-point terrain) in Glenbrook South’s 44-36 victory.
“I picked up what helped my shot go in,” Shaw said of her aha moment during one of those post-practice minutes. “I grew as a player, and the confidence in my shot grew.”
When returning all-Central Suburban League selection and University of Denver-bound Carie Weinman — a 5-9, do-everything guard — had to sit out eight games with a knee injury, beginning in late December, Shaw had to grow some more as a hoopster.
And it showed, as the Titans (18-4, 6-1 in the CSL South) went 6-2 without Weinman, who returned to action against New Trier last weekend.
“She’s such a huge part of our team,” Shaw said after Weinman scored nine points, including four on back-to-back driving layups, against a Trevians squad (13-9, 3-4) that had won six of its last seven games.
“We missed her, of course, but those three weeks were really good for us considering we played as well as we did without Carie. Everybody had to play better when she was out. Everybody also gained confidence.”
Shaw made Weissenstein’s varsity in her freshman season, but she was more than familiar with the atmosphere surrounding Titans basketball. One of her older sisters, Ali (Class of 2011), played varsity hoops for three seasons before continuing her hoops career at the University of Chicago.
“I was at most of her Glenbrook South games, watching and dribbling around,” said Lizzy Shaw, who averages about seven points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals per game.
Months before her first varsity basketball game, Shaw ran around — as a member of the varsity cross country team. In the fall of 2014, only one member of the team qualified to hustle around the Detweiller Park course at the Class 3A state meet in Peoria: Shaw.
No wonder she wasn’t tired after playing all 32 minutes — and collecting three steals, to go with those clutch 12 points — in the game at New Trier last weekend.
Shaw no longer runs cross country. Basketball is her steady in the world of the sports. Speaking of steady, that’s a word that accurately describes her game. Shaw, while dribbling, is so good and in control with either hand, you can’t tell what her dominant hand is until she shoots right-handed.
And her passes are National Honor Society smart.
“Lizzy has been a wiz with the basketball since the day she entered Glenbrook South,” Weissenstein said. “She’s underrated as a defender, usually going up against the other team’s No. 1 or 2 [player], and she boxes out really well for a guard.”
With about three minutes left in the first quarter and South trailing 8-5 at New Trier last weekend, that guard received a sharp pass from Weinman moments after Weinman entered game action for the first time since Dec. 22. Shaw nailed a three-pointer — her second of the frame — and then watched Weinman net those back-to-back layups in a 47-second span.
Suddenly it was Glenbrook South with a 12-8 advantage.
The potent backcourt band was back together.
“Lizzy has always been a key player for us,” said Weinman, who poured in a team-high 15 points in South’s 42-39 defeat of visiting and state-ranked Hersey (19-3) on Jan. 21. “She does the little things well — finds the open teammate, attacks … she can do it all. But we sometimes have to tell her to shoot more.
“And she’s the sweetest person,” Weinman added. “Our ‘Little Lizzy’ — that’s what we call her — is such a nice person.”
School work and basketball are Shaw’s top commitments in the winter, though she finds time to watch TV and read books other than textbooks. Her aim in 2018 and beyond is to pass and shoot and defend for a college women’s basketball team.
“Lizzy plays hard, plays her heart out,” said sister Ali, in town last weekend to attend a cousin’s wedding in Elgin. “That was something she earned, making the varsity as a freshman. She’s focused on basketball.
“Good kid, funny kid,” added the member of the 2014-15 University Athletic Association co-champion women’s basketball team at the University of Chicago. “My little sister is smart, too.”
Nemecek, the Titans’ assistant coach and one of Shaw’s personal rebounders, sees Shaw’s competitive side on the courts and Shaw’s friendly side in the school’s hallways.
He admires both sides.
“She’s receptive to coaching,” he said. “Lizzy is also so positive and delightful. Every time I see her during the school hours, she’s either smiling or going up to people and starting conversations with them.”
Nemecek settles for an entirely different kind of sound after most practices at Glenbrook South: a basketball, launched by Shaw, falling through a net.
Notable: Glenbrook South sophomore guard Libbie Vanderveen scored 10 points (second among teammates to Carie Weinman’s 15) in a 42-39 defeat of visiting Hersey on Jan. 21. Junior forward Liz LaPierre tallied eight, and sophomore guard Makayla Stadler chipped in with six points. South led 28-16 at the half. … The Titans produced an 8-0 run at the start of the third quarter and a 9-0 spurt in the fourth quarter in their 44-36 win at New Trier on Jan. 20. Senior guard Callie Pekosh (eight points) scored the final three points in the first sequence and five more in the latter, as the visitors limited New Trier’s Trevians to two points in the game’s final 5:16. LaPierre (three points, four rebounds, three steals) and Stadler (six points, four rebounds) each came up with a steal, 25 seconds apart, to thwart NT’s comeback bid in the fourth quarter. Weinman came down with a team-high seven rebounds for the victors.