Girls Basketball: Stevenson finishes season with 23 wins, regional title

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Veteran coach Tom Dineen guided the Patriots to a 23-win season. | Rob Dicker~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: April 2, 2012 8:08AM

Even though their season ended in heartbreaking fashion – with a 53-46 loss to Zion-Benton in the IHSA Class 4A Palatine Sectional seminfinals – Stevenson’s girls basketball players can hold their heads high.

They did, after all, finish with an impressive 23-8 overall record. That included legendary coach Tom Dineen’s first regional title with the Patriots, thanks to a dominant 18-point win over Lake Zurich.

Stevenson will lose four seniors to graduation, including three of its starting five. But the learning curve toward continued success for those remaining won’t be quite as steep as some might think. A big reason for that is junior guard Kari Moffat.

Moffat’s ball-handling skills are among the best in the North Suburban Conference, and her ability to beat defenders off the dribble will only make her even more dangerous a year from now.

It’s also a big reason why Division-I schools Drake, Loyola University and UIC are paying close attention to the three-year varsity player.

“I’m just looking to play the game and enjoy it right now,” Moffat said. “And then we’ll see what happens. I’ll probably make a decision after summer, or sometime next year.”

After storming out to an 8-2 lead in their sectional matchup against the Zee-Bees, Stevenson was stunned when Zion-Benton stormed right back and scored 22 unanswered points – in a span of less than five minutes – to take a commanding 16-point second quarter lead.

Lesser teams may have folded, or shown signs of giving up. Not the Patriots, who remained cool, calm and collected. They somehow cut that deficit to just three, with 1:47 left in the game, but couldn’t finish what would’ve been an incredible rally.

“It shows we have so much heart,” Moffat said, then paused to think.

“This is a tough loss for us. “But those of us who will still be here have to find a way to shake this off, and start working hard to get ready for next season. I’m always gonna remember the atmosphere here (with my teammates), and how we all worked together to bring this school it’s first girls basketball regional championship in several years.”

A key loss: One thing the Patriots will moss most next season is the loss of senior Katie Batman, who was brilliant in her final high school game, scoring a team-high 16 points, along with five rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Not only was she the team’s leading scorer this season, but she is the kind of versatile player who does a lot of the little things well within a game. She, like many of her teammates, was overcome with emotion when describing what it meant to be a part of this team.

“I love playing basketball, so being part of such a wonderful team that had such a great coach, assistant coach and all the girls on this team ... I’m so lucky. This was the best season I could ask for.”

Although the possibility always remains, she currently has no plans to play basketball in college. She, too, was impressed by her team’s heart against Zion-Benton.

“We turned a huge deficit into a close game,” Batman said. “I give credit to everyone on my team. We never hung our heads or gave up.”

Living legend: Dineen is currently listed as the state’s fourth-winningest coach ever on the IHSA.org website.

According to the site, he has 677 career wins. However, the site also says that total hasn’t been updated to include his wins while coaching at Stevenson yet – which would unofficially put him as high as second in the state all-time.

The current state record for most coaching wins in a career is held by Dorothy Gaters, who coached Chicago (Marshall), from 1975-2011, and amassed a career record of 947-152.

Dineen spoke of this year’s Patriots team like a proud father or grandfather would have.

“If you had told these kids that they’d win 23 games and be regional champs in the beginning of the year, they probably would’ve taken it,” Dineen said.

“I’m very proud of the season we had. We can’t let the fact we lost diminish what we accomplished this season.”

Stevenson will also lose seniors Olivia Whalen, Julia Dabrowski and Hayley Arenson to graduation. As for next season’s team, which also figures to return freshman guard Taylor Buford and forward sparkplug Alex Elzinga?

“I think they can do it again,” Dineen said.