Freshman phenom Jillian Sanderson totals 23 points and six steals to lead Penn to 54-32 girls basketball victory at Chesterton

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com
Injuries certainly played a role in the Chesterton girls basketball team’s inability to hang with visiting Penn beyond the first quarter-and-a-half of basketball Friday night, but they weren’t the primary reason Penn dominated the second half.
The Lady Kingsmen had freshman Jillian Sanderson playing for them and Chesterton did not. That was the biggest factor in Penn winning the nonconference game, 54-32.
Sanderson, daughter of Notre Dame men’s basketball strength and conditioning coach John Snaderson, had no peers on the court in terms of either athleticism or basketball skill. Once she heated up, there was no cooling her down. She made 4 of 7 3-pointers and totaled 23 points and six steals. Fellow freshman Makenzie Juszczak added eight points for Penn.
The Trojans (4-2) trailed by one point midway through the second quarter and were behind 19-14 at the half, impressive considering starting center Reese Dilbeck, the team’s leading rebounder and best post defender, did not play. She was sidelined after getting drilled in the eye by a swinging elbow the previous night in a three-point victory over Kankakee Valley.
Compounding matters, Allison Van Kley, the only senior in the Trojans’ rotation and a productive prowler of the passing lanes for a team that relies heavily on forcing turnovers and turning them into fastbreak buckets, went down with a painful shoulder injury during the third quarter and spent the rest of the game sitting on the bench with a mound of ice on her shoulder.
Penn’s lead was 13-12 at the of the first quarter, but the Trojans suffered multiple scoring droughts in the next two periods, losing by a combined score of 26-7.
The 20-point deficit heading into the fourth was too big for Chesterton to overcome, but that didn’t prevent the Trojans from picking themselves up and playing a strong final eight minutes without their two injured starters.
Sophomore Lindsi McGuffey, who looks comfortable running the team from the point guard position, scored eight of her team-high 14 points in the fourth quarter and junior Novea Brandon five of her 10 points.
“I thought they played their guts out in that fourth quarter,” second-year Chesterton coach Candy Wilson said. “That was probably the most we moved the ball around. We looked like we were being aggressive on offense.”
The Trojans resume their schedule Wednesday, playing their DAC opener on Thanksgiving eve at home vs. Lake Central.
Wilson said that Dilbeck’s father, Dave Dilbeck, told her Reese was “feeling much better,” resting at home Friday, and it’s possible she could be in the lineup for the DAC opener. The coach added that she did not yet have any idea how long Van Kley will be sidelined.