Bolingbrook's Tuck verbals to UConn women's basketball

Beginning with the 2012-13 college basketball season, a Connecticut vs. Illinois women's game will carry a special significance in Bolingbrook. Morgan Tuck, a highly recruited junior forward for two-time Class 4A state champion Bolingbrook and a member of the FIBA world championship U17 national team this past summer, verbaled her to commitment to defending NCAA champ UConn last week. Her sister, Taylor, a senior, signed with Illinois in the early recruiting period last week. Morgan Tuck's scholarship offers included Duke, Tennessee and Illinois, among many others.

* Courtney Keefe, a senior at Lemont, signed a national letter-of-intent to play volleyball at Bradley University. Keefe, an outside hitter, totaled 901 career kills, leading Lemont to 120 wins and four regional titles over the last four years.

* Illinois men's basketball recruit Tracy Abrams of Mount Carmel (Chicago) scored a game-high 22 points, including 15 in the fourth quarter, but the Caravan lost 70-58 to Homewood-Flossmoor in the Chicago Heights Classic.

* John Lithio, a senior at Downers Grove South who had never scored more than eight points in a varsity game and previously had played mostly on the junior varsity squad, scored 24 points in a 67-54 win over East Aurora and Connecticut recruit Ryan Boatright in the St. Charles East Thanksgiving Tournament.

* Texas Christian University diving recruit Lauren Mikulecky won the first state diving championship in Neuqua Valley (Naperville) history with a score of 418.



* Fenwick (Oak Park) earned a 65-26 girls basketball victory over Niles North on Tuesday to give Fenwick head coach Dave Power his 800th career win. He is just the second coach in Illinois girls basketball history to reach that milestone. He has won three state titles, including two at Fenwick and one at Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Friars won their first four games this year. "This isn't my accomplishment. It is about every girl who played for me because they all contributed," Power told the Chicago Sun-Times. Power trails only Dorothy Gaters, who won 881 games from 1975 to 2008 at Chicago Marshall.

* Louisville men's basketball recruit Wayne Blackshear of Morgan Park (Chicago) will take his hoop skills out of town this weekend, when the Mustangs play Hamilton (Milwaukee) and Iowa State recruit Elgin Cook in the NY2LA Classic on Saturday at Marquette University High School. Next week, it'll be the CPS Shootout at Chicago State University. Morgan averaged 29 points per game last year in a 21-6 season for Morgan Park.

Paul Bowker, an online and newspaper sports journalist for 25 years and the author of two Major League Baseball books, covers the Chicago area for MaxPreps. He may be reached at bowkerpaul1@aol.com.