Chicago Public League Sports Blog

Pictures Now: Lane Tech Girls Basketball Team Warm Up Pictures

On February 11, 2009 Lane Tech played Regina Dominican in a girls basketball game.

Click here for the photo album.

Maria Joyce gives verbal agreement to play basketball at Illinois Central College

Maria Joyce (left) has been a standout for Lane Tech in basketball and softball.

Lane Tech senior Maria Joyce gave a verbal agreement to play basketball for ILLINOIS CENTRAL COLLEGE located in Peoria, IL. on a full scholarship for the 2009-10 year.
ICC Cougars are coached by Steve Garber sgarber@icc.edu   (309)694-5418 
ICC has a very exciting team  which were ranked this year as high as #3 in the country at  the  JCAA  level.  Look for Maria to propel  this team to the next level, work on her studies and then transfer to a 4 year college....
With all the offers that were offered, Maria believes she would best fit the style of Illinois Central running, pressure  type of basketball..

Varsity Girls Basketball Team - 2nd place at Morton College

2008 Lane Tech Girls Basketball Team with their 2nd place medals and plaque from the 2008 Morton College Holiday Minuteman Classic (click for larger picture).

Do you have a photo you want published on LaneTechFan.com? email it to the Publisher: Publisher@LaneTechFan.com

summary of tournament games:

Lane Tech 49 Hinsdale South 46
Lane wins their first round game at the Morton Tournament, against a team that was one of the pre-tournament favorites. This is Lane's marquee win of the year so far.

Lane 61, St. Joseph 57, OT
Lane Tech girls basketball team seems to be finding it's groove after starting the season something like 0-4. Two wins in a row to open the Morton Tournament in wins over Hinsdale South and now a close win over underrated St. Joseph 61-57 put Lane in the drivers seat for a 2nd straight Morton Championship game appearance. But to assure that they get there they will still need to post a victory over Reavis. Reavis beat Hinsdale South on Saturday. So, it comes down to Lane vs. Reavis. The winner will play undefeated Riverside Brookfield for the title.

Lane 49, Reavis 27
Girls hammered Reavis 49-27 today. Reavis is a good suburban team. Not really sure why you are complaining. The girls have now beaten Hinsdale South, St. Joseph, and Reavis and will play Riverside Brookfield (RB) for the championship. A loss to RB is not necessarily a bad thing (if they lose). RB is good and undefeated this year. But we are good as well. As long as we play well, that's what counts. Maria Joyce is a beast in the inside and has developed an outside game. Carranza can dish out the ball but may be a bot susceptible to turnovers on pressure D. But she can hoop. A full strength Lane squad is dangerous and has a chance to beat RB.

Riverside-Brookfield 63, Lane 36 (1st)
Rachel Buccieri scored 21 points and was named tournament MVP for Riverside-Brookfield (13-0). Fallon Ryan added 11 points. Maria Joyce scored all 11 of her points in the first quarter for Lane (7-8). R-B outscored Lane 38-13 in the second half to run away with the win.

Joyce"ful" Return - Lane Upends Payton with return of Joyce

Maria Joyce's return sparks the Indians

Lane Tech's girls basketball team started out the season 0-5 after a rough showing at the Schaumburg Tournament. Meanwhile, conference rival Payton started the season in the opposite direction with a perfect 5-0 record after breezing through the Prosser Thanksgiving Tournament with score like 73-4 over Jones and 59-11 over Amundsen. So going into Tuesday's conference opening game between Lane and Payton at Payton, many thought this would be the year Payton would upend Lane, right? WRONG!

Lane behind a gutsy effort from point guard Jasmine Corranza's 24 points, and a stellar return performance of 16 points from Maria Joyce, got by Payton 68-61.

Joyce, a senior, returned to action for the first time this season after being suspended for the first few games. But apparently, Joyce is back and her energy, defense, rebounding, and overall great team play helped her Indians to the victory over a Payton team hungry to beat their conference rivals.

The Payton and Lane rivalry in girls sports is starting to really grow as many players from both sides play and compete against each other in other sports such as Volleyball and Softball. The intensity seems to be growing every year as both schools are very competitive in girls sports. Payton is fresh off a 4th place finish at state and a 2nd straight city championship in girls volleyball - a sport in which Lane dominated the city for almost all of the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's. Payton is trying to carry on that volleyball success in girls basketball, but schools like Von Steuben and Lane Tech still rule the northside of Chicago.

Girls Basketball team opens season with loss to Schaumburg

The Lane Tech Girls Basketball team opened it's 2008-09 season with a 59-44 lost to host Schaumburg in the Schaumburg tournament. Lane always starts it's season at the Schaumburg Thanksgiving Tournament. In recent years, they have had some tough times at Schaumburg due to the stiff competition. Lane will play the other teams in this round robin tournament the next few days.

Schaumburg Tournament - first day results

Glenbrook South 55, St. Charles East 43

Rockford Boylan 49, Wheaton South 29

Schaumburg 59, Lane 44

Feeney Officially Named Girls Varsity Basketball Coach; Hebson named girls volleyball coach

Mary Feeney has been officially announced as the new Lane Tech girls basketball coach. Feeney, the former girls frosh-soph coach has done a splendid job at the lower levels for Lane. She has replaced Frank Zepf who was removed from the position last week.

In another move, Nicole Hebson was officially named the girls varsity volleyball coach.

Below is a video interview with Mary Feeney taken in 2007:

Frank Zeph OUT as Lane Tech Girls Basketball Coach

Frank Zeph led Lane's very successful girls varsity basketball team.

Some people call it a firing, others call it a resignation, or a forced resignation, or even a re-organization. But the bottom line is longtime girls varsity basketball coach Frank Zeph is no longer the Girls varsity basketball coach at Lane Tech.

There's lot's of speculation as to why Zeph left but I know one thing on field results is not one of them.

Frank Zeph led Lane Tech a city quarterfinal appearance in 2007-08. That is a great accomplishment in the basketball rich Chicago Public Leauge- producers of two state championships in girls basketball in 2008 (Marshall and Whitney Young). Along the way Lane beat southside power Simeon. Zeph's 2007-08 team also finished 2nd to state ranked Von Steuben in the Windy City North - one of the top Public League conferences. Zeph's teams produced many all-conference players over the years including Maria Joyce and Alexis Dillon.

Mary Feeney (left) seen here consoling an injured Maria Joyce during a game, will most likely be the new coach.

Joyce and Dillon named to Chicago Suntimes All-conference team

Maria Joyce (front) and Alexis Dillon (back) were named all-conference in 2008.

Lane Tech's Alexis Dillon and Maria Joyce were named all-conference by the Chicago Sun-times. Dillon is a senior and finishes her basketball career at Lane. Joyce will return next year, for she is only a junior. Dillon and Joyce led Lane in scoring and rebounding this year. They also help Lane finish 2nd place in conference behind state power Von Steuben. Lane also advanced to the city quarterfinals - a tremendous feat in the basketball rich Chicago Public League.

ALL-CONFERENCE

GIRLS BASKETBALL

PUBLIC LEAGUE

WINDY CITY CENTRAL

Bogan: Lynette Holmes, Bessie McBride, Jolisa Olive, Tenisha Wilson; Hope: Ashley Brown, Zhaque Gray, Dawn Luster, Jasmine Stackhouse; Hyde Park: Cemonay Newell

WINDY CITY NORTH

Lane: Alexis Dillon, Maria Joyce; Northside Prep: Aral Johnson; Payton: Sarah Lendy, Kathleen Molloy; Prosser: Vanessa Andrews; Von Steuben: Devin Baker, Kierra Powell, Lateria Taylor, Romisha Taylor

WINDY CITY SOUTH

Harlan: Angela Hogue, Latoya Hambrick; Morgan Park: Bria Butler, Brittany Williams, Jasmine Winston; Simeon: Larrita Gibson, Dominique Reese; Washington: Bianca Fennessee, Centrese McGee, Dominique Moseley, LaParis Newsom

WINDY CITY WEST

Clark: Regina Sawyer; Crane: Monica Hallom, G. Smith; Marshall: Adrienne GodBold, Terranika Reynolds, Sara Rogers; Young: Ashley Anderson, Portia Harris, D'Frantz Smart

Dixon, Abreau, Dillon make Chicago Sun-times post-season teams

Kevin Dixon (sr), right in action vs Taft earlier this year.

Lane Tech's Kevin Dixon (jr) and Robert Abreau (sr) have been named on the Chicago Sun-times all Public League team for the Red-North conference for boys varsity basketball.

On the girls varsity basketball level, Alexis Dillon (sr) was named as a All-Area special mention.

Knocked OUT!! Upset Bid Falls Short vs St. Ignatius is state playoffs

Alexis Dillon (sr) did her part to help Lane complete another successful season.

The Lane Tech girls varsity basketball team fell short in their upset bid when they lost to St. Ignatius 46-39 in the St. Ignatius Regional Final. Despite the loss it was already a successful season by Lane. Lane started out the year with a big victory over St. Charles East in the highly regarded Schaumburg tournament. Then during the regular season they posted victories over Northside Prep and Payton to finish second behind state ranked Von Steuben in the Windy City North conference. Lane also took second in the Morton College holiday tournament and advanced all the way to the Public League Quarter-finals before finally bowing down to #1 state ranked Hope.

Lane Tech was led by junior Maria Joyce who scored 14 points in the loss over St. Ignatius.

Lane will return most of it's core group of starters and with improvement during the off season, they may be able to at least repeat the successes they saw this year.