Benet sophomore Emma Briggs is proving she can make an impact even when she’s playing out of position.
Or out of the country.
The 5-foot-11 Briggs is accustomed to being a small forward, which is the position she plays for her AAU team, M14 Hoops. But Benet coach Joe Kilbride is starting Briggs at center due to the team’s relative lack of size.
“She’s kind of playing out of position for us,” Kilbride said. “She’s not a post, but she’s playing that for us. She’s one of our best passers, which against the zone is great. Her and Bridget (Rifenburg) are getting inside the zone and passing it in and out for us, which is great.”
Briggs can handle the other responsibilities of the position too.
“She rebounds, she’s defending bigger kids and she’s really good at taking it to the rim,” Kilbride said. “So it’s all good.”
Briggs, who is in her second varsity season and first as a starter, is averaging 8.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists while shooting 48% from the floor and 70% from the line.
She had one of her best performances yet on Wednesday, when she racked up 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting, a game-high nine rebounds, two blocks and an assist in Benet’s 70-36 East Suburban Catholic Conference victory against Carmel in Lisle.
It was the eighth straight win for the Redwings (17-5, 7-1) heading into their first-place showdown at Nazareth.
Briggs’ fine play isn’t a surprise to senior guard Maggie Sularski.
“She’s been doing really good throughout the whole year,” Sularski said. “When we get her the ball, she hits buckets. If she gets trapped, she gets it to us, and she’s a great player all-around, defensively too. She’s a really strong player.”
Kilbride said Briggs has shown steady progress ever since last season. But her confidence grew exponentially after playing for Great Britain at the FIBA U16 Women’s European Championship in Podgorica, Montenegro, in August.
Briggs, whose father, Richard, is a native of England, knew she didn’t have a chance of playing internationally for Team USA. But her heritage offered another path to it.
“I wanted to see if Great Britain had a team,” Briggs said. “So we emailed them, and they emailed back saying, ‘We’d like to see some film of you.’
“Then they invited me to their camp, and I went over there for six weeks and trained and then played in the tournament in Montenegro.”
Briggs played in all seven games in the European Championship tournament, averaging 6.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 17 minutes per game. Great Britain went 4-0 in group play of Division B before losing to Estonia 66-65 in the quarterfinals and eventually finishing sixth out of 20 teams.
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But Briggs didn’t play forward or center.
“They helped me definitely become a better guard, considering that I wasn’t really a ballhandler or as good at driving before then,” she said. “Once I went over there, they gave me the confidence to shoot more, and the 3-point line is farther back. Once I started making threes over there, I thought I could now shoot more here.”
Briggs said the international game is faster-paced and higher-scoring than the high school game in the U.S. She prefers the slower pace of high school basketball, which seems to come easier to her after she played at the faster pace.
The summer was hectic for Briggs, but she still had time to enjoy herself in Britain.
“I used to go there often as a kid, but I hadn’t been back in a while,” she said. “It was definitely amazing because I got to see my family and got to play with some new people who were amazing. It was definitely a new experience playing with people from different countries.”
Briggs’ father is an only child, but she got to meet great-aunts and great-uncles.
“It was good to know where I’m from,” she said. “My sister’s godparents’ daughter is around my age, so I got to hang out with her and have the teenage experience.”
Might Briggs play for Great Britain again?
“We emailed them, and they are definitely thinking about extending the invite again, which is great,” she said. “But this summer AAU season is also a big recruiting season. We’re trying to see if I can do both.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.