ALL-FRCC GIRLS

First team
Anna Fogle, jr, North
Second team
Maddie Ognacevic, sr, South
Honorable mention
Victoria Toeller, jr, North

A 31-point game is just one of the reasons North’s Anna Fogle made first-team all-Fox River Classic Conference.

She also ranked second in the FRCC in assists (4.5 per game), steals (3.7) and three-point percentage (42%).

The junior, who has been on varsity every year, is also on the all-defensive team for the league, too.

“She became super efficient as the season went on as far as limiting turnovers, creating assists, and really getting the team going offensively,” coach Keith Conway said. “She’s kind of the engine that gets us going.”

Teammate Victoria Toeller, a junior shooting guard, also had a great second half and finished eighth in the league in scoring (11.3) and 13th in rebounding (5.5) to receive honorable mention.

“She’s not relied upon to handle the ball quite as much, but she plays undersized against bigger players in our zone for rebounding,” Conway said. “She’s a strong defender down low for us, and an efficient shooter as well.”

RECAP: The Golden Raiders got off to a 1-7 start but still managed to finish 15-11 overall and finish third in the conference at 13-5.

Conway admits it was a rough start.

“But we played a very tough schedule with five of our first eight games being against ranked opponents in the state,” he said.

North also had to replace seven seniors from last year.

“We lost the bulk of scoring, so this year at the beginning, it was trying to figure out what we were good at,” Conway said. “We turned things around once we got to the new year and started gaining confidence.”

South represented

Senior Maddie Ognacevic is the defensive player of the year in the league, and earned all-conference second team after leading the Fox River Classic in rebounds and blocks for the second year in a row.

She finishes as the 10th-leading scorer in program history and holds the school record for most rebounds in a career, season and game.

Coach Garrett Renzelmann, who believes the school has never had a defensive player of the year, says Ognacevic is quick, athletic and can not only block shots, but alter them.

“There’s a lot of shots that go up against her that don’t come close to hitting the rim because she forces kids to shoot from uncomfortable angles,” he said. “We kept her in the middle of our zone the second half of the season to protect the paint, and she can do that with really the best in the state. She’s a great rebounder, and if we played man-to-man, she got matched up against whoever the team’s best player was. It didn’t matter if they were a forward, a center, wing, point guard, she guarded them all. She’s got that versatility to play underneath the basket and also play on the perimeter, which is what I think the other coaches respect in her and recognize.”

RECAP: South finished 5-19 but did snap long losing streaks to two schools.

The Redwings beat Preble to halt a 27-game skid and also defeated Pulaski for the first time in 20 games. They had not beaten either team since 2008.