Loyola continues championship-level start against young New Trier

Defending champion Loyola Academy and young and athletic New Trier were true to themselves in a pre-Thanksgiving matchup Wednesday in Wilmette.

With the 59-26 victory, the Ramblers improved to 4-0, with an early margin of victory of more than 40 points while pushing their winning streak to 42 games.

Loyola lost two four-year standouts, Paige Engels and Kelsey Langston, to graduation, but remains experienced and talented behind star senior point guard Aubrey Galvan (Vanderbilt commit).

“We’re a new team and looking to prove to everybody that we’re still as good as last year,” said Galvan, who scored a game-high 14 points Wednesday. “We make sure we go into every practice, every game with determination and hard work.”

Galvan is joined by returning starter Clare Weasler, a junior, who scored 13 points in the win against New Trier. Seniors Nora Emerson, who stared as a sophomore, and Grace Bronski, a role player the past two seasons; junior Marycait Mackie, the Ramblers’ first off the bench last year; and sophomore Emily Naraky, a versatile and skilled wing, top Loyola’s rotation.

Naraky scored 7 points Nov. 27, and Mackie added 6 with 4 rebounds and 3 steals. Emerson also scored 6 points.

Emerson, Bronski and Naraky give Loyola more size than recent iterations, which coach Jeremy Schoenecker hopes to leverage to create more open shots.

Overall, though, Schoenecker said his experienced team is going to stick to the program’s strengths with a couple tweaks here and there.

“Really, our concepts stay the same,” he said. “We’re going to try to press people and turn them over so maybe we don’t have to live in the half-court as much as we did last year. … Get out in transition and run a little bit more, but a lot of the same things have really stayed the same (as previous years.)

He added, “We all know defense wins championships, so we’re trying to build around our defense. We know in the state tournament you can’t have a bad night shooting the basketball so we’re hoping to avoid that as well.”

The Trevians are coming off a regional championship, which ended a five-season regional drought, and it took a senior-heavy squad to make it happen.

With those leaders, specifically KJ Saccaro, Erin Floyd and Sela Klein, moving on, Trevians coach Teri Rodgers and company are figuring out their identity. To Rodgers, that starts with energy, and she was proud of her team’s showing against the potent Ramblers.

“They’ve been playing so hard and that’s one of the things we talk about is we have to play hard the whole time. I was very pleased with their effort. I’m really, really proud of that,” she said. “I’m really proud of the work they’re putting in and that’s who we’re going to be. We’re going to play hard for 32 minutes. I was really proud of them today. They never let up. And we’ll get better and better.”

Senior Anna Rivera returns to the Trevs’ starting unit and scored 6 points to go with a pair of steals against Loyola. Sophomore forward Emerson Buck, who led New Trier with 8 points, is the only other player returning from the 2023-’24 rotation.

Two other sophomores — Victoria Wainscott and Dami Balogun — are vital components to this year’s Trevians. Balogun came off the bench Wednesday and recorded at least 4 steals while also draining a three-point shot.

Seniors Jane Harris and Malena Riefe (4 points) started Wednesday, while junior Avery Schecter (5 points) and senior Carolina Rossman also saw plenty of court time.

The Trevians tried to move fast against the Ramblers, getting out in transition when they could. Rodgers said it will take time for her team to learn to play efficiently with each other and with pace.

“We’ll get better and better,” she said. “We’re taking a lot of shots, a lot of good shots. They haven’t always fallen in the first part of the season, but when you’re getting good shots, they’re gonna fall. When you put in the work to become better shooters, they’re going to fall. I feel good about the shots we’re getting and we’ll knock them down.” 

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