DePaul basketball coach Doug Bruno attributes it to deoxyribonucleic acid.
“Allie Quigley has great instincts for the game of basketball,” he said. “These are things that can’t be taught. She’s been blessed.”
Call it DNA, call it hard work, call it whatever you want–the Joliet Catholic senior has it. So it was only natural, if you will, that the 5-foot-11-inch senior be named to the Tribune’s 2003-04 All-State Girls Basketball team with Naperville Central’s Candace Parker, Neuqua Valley’s Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton, Marian Catholic’s Lauren Lacey and Bartlett junior Lindsay Schrader.
Quigley has blessed the court at Joliet Catholic the last four years and will take her chemistry to DePaul. She averaged 26 points and 10 rebounds, made 84 percent of her free throws and finished with 2,389 points–many of them coming against one of the most difficult schedules in the state. That’s because the Angels play in the East Suburban Catholic against powers such as Fenwick, Marian Catholic, Benet and Carmel.
“We didn’t get as far as we wanted to,” Quigley said of the 20-8 Angels, knocked out by a sectional semifinal loss to Class AA quarterfinalist Marian Catholic. “But we won a regional, which we’d never done.”
OK, her basketball season is over. But the season never ends for Quigley. In the fall she was an All-State volleyball player who led the Angels to their first state title in the sport. And now it’s time for softball. A shortstop last season, Quigley hit .438 and never struck out in a sport where strikeouts are the norm.
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If all this sounds like she’s too good an athlete to be true, blame it on her genes. Christine Prieboy, Quigley’s mother, was an outstanding athlete in the late 1970s at Joliet Central. An All-State basketball player, she also excelled in tennis, softball and volleyball before a college career at St. Francis. Quigley’s father, Patrick, coached several sports at Lincoln-Way before his death when Allie was in 1st grade. Her sister Samantha, one of the area’s outstanding sophomores, will continue the Quigley tradition at Joliet Catholic.
“Sports were just something we were aware of, always around,” Allie Quigley said.
Quigley finished her high school career as the East Suburban Catholic player of the year and is one of two players from the state–Parker is the other–who will play in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-America Game on April 3 at Tulane.
All Parker did was commit to national power Tennessee on ESPN, recover from a torn ACL and lead Naperville Central to a second consecutive Class AA state championship and 33-2 season. Naperville Central, 35-0 last season, was 3-2 after a Nov. 29 loss to Benet. Then it went on a 30-game winning streak–with Parker in the lineup for the last 24. She missed one game as a junior, meaning she finished her high school career with 58 consecutive wins.
“It’s really weird,” she said. “I talked with coach [Tennessee’s Pat] Summitt before my final game and said, `This is it. No matter how well we play, there’s nothing more to add to my season.'”
She had 29 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocked shots in that championship-game victory over New Trier, and in six Elite Eight games scored 172 points for a state-record 28.7 scoring average. Parker totaled 2,758 career points and would likely have surpassed 3,000 had she not missed those 11 games.
Wisdom-Hylton will graduate as one of the best all-around players in state history. In her final game, a loss in the sectional final to Parker and Central, she picked up her 500th assist. That made her the only Illinois high school girl, according to IHSA records, to record at least 500 points, rebounds, blocks, steals and assists. This season she averaged 15 points, 10.5 rebounds and 5.2 blocks. Despite the numbers, she will not enter Purdue overconfident.
“It’s a real big challenge–I’m kind of scared,” said Wisdom-Hylton, who had a breakout state tournament as a freshman. “There are always things you can improve.”
Before Marian Catholic met Stagg in the supersectionals for a chance to get to the Elite Eight a third consecutive season, Lauren Lacey met with coach Shannon Reidy for a few minutes. Reidy told her, “I’m proud of every kid I’ve ever had, and I’m exceptionally proud of you.”
No wonder. Lacey averaged almost 20 points, finished as Marian’s career scoring leader and heads for Minnesota along with second-teamer Natasha Williams of Niles North.
Bartlett’s Schrader, the only underclassman on the first team, said, “I look at myself, and I’m average. Every part of my game is average. I do not have one outstanding point. I want to get to perfection.”
Average? Well, she did average a double-double–20.3 and 10.1 rebounds–and battled back from internal bleeding late in the season as the Hawks finished unbeaten in the Upstate Eight.
GIRLS BASKETBALL ALL-STATE HONORABLE MENTION
Guards
Andrea Bankhead, jr., Proviso West
Gabrielle Cottrell, sr., Prospect
Rachel Crissy, sr., Naperville Central
Kassie Drew, sr., Anna-Jonesboro
Jenny Eckhart, jr., Carmel
Pam Findlay, sr., Glenbrook South
Devyn Flanagan, sr., Riverton
Tiffany Hudson, sr., Naperville C.
Theresa Lisch, so., Belleville Althoff
Tara Michels, sr., Dixon
Kayla Ming, sr., Grayslake
Natalie Pucci, sr., Jacobs
Ashley Sandstead, sr., Buff. Grove
Amber Shelton, sr., Edwardsville
Chandra Smith, sr., Benet
Biannca Ward, fr., Peoria Rich.
Janesha Washington, sr., Marshall
Kristina Yedinak, jr., Ottawa Marq.
Forwards
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Tamara Butler, sr., Champaign C.
Erin Cattell, jr., Sandburg
Lexanne Dickerson, sr., Carthage
Jenee Graham, sr., Bolingbrook
Amy Hunckler, sr., Benet
Heather King, sr., Stagg
Brittany McCoy, so., Loyola
Ashlee Pistorius, sr., Normal U-High
Monica Rogers, sr., Dec. St. Teresa
Sara Stutz, sr., Glenbrook South
Shari’ Welton, sr., Thornwood
Centers
Erica Bruxvoort, sr., Illiana Christian
Danielle Campbell, jr., Young
Nikya Hughes, sr., Peoria Central
Amy Jaeschke, fr., New Trier
Ellen Jaeschke, sr., Cary-Grove
Ali Ridge, sr., Fremd
Laura Rudolphi, sr., Carlyle
Yinka Sanni, sr., Ho.-Flossmoor
Caprice Smith, sr., Trinity
Tiffany Terwelp, sr., Quincy
Nicole Watzlawick, sr., Hampshire