DES PLAINES, IL — Four years after the revival of Oakton College’s women’s basketball team, the Owls again stand one victory away from a trip to the junior college national championship tournament.
Oakton is poised for a pivotal game 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Rockford in the Region 4 Division II championship against top-seeded Rock Valley College.
If they win, they will advance to the National Junior College Athletic Association, or NJCAA, tournament later this month at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Missouri.
The Owls secured their opportunity for one of two automatic berths in the final with a 75-66 semifinal victory over Bryant & Stratton College from Wisconsin last weekend.
Freshman guard Bryce Wolf went 5 for 5 from beyond the 3-point line, leading the team with 20 points.
The women’s basketball team at Oakton Community College, as it was known until last year, lost about three out of every four games for the half-dozen seasons leading up to the hiatus of the program for the 2019-20 season.
Head Coach Tony Siriscevich was hired to restart the program in 2020, but his first season in charge was canceled due to COVID-19.
Since play resumed, Siriscevich has led the team to a 77-17 record. And this year, he was named the Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year following the team’s runner-up finish in the conference.
“I came in and sold kids on, ‘Work hard, and good things can happen,'” Siriscevich told Patch. “And it came though.”
Siriscevich, a full-time Chicago Police Department officer, previously coached boys and girls at the high school level and men at the college level.
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In the last month, the coach said, the team lost two of its leading scorers due to season-ending injuries.
“I think the advantage that we had over other schools was strength in numbers,” Siriscevich said.
The team has five sophomores with a lot of big-game experience, the coach said, who have been able to step in and pick up the slack following the injuries to some of its top offensive performers.
“The other girls had a chance to have an expanded role,” he said. “They’ve all answered the call, and they’ve put us in this position again.”
Oakton rank in the top 10 nationally in NJCAA Division II for overall points, assists, steals, field goals, attempts and shooting percentage.
Kamila Gajkowska, one of team’s two captains, said she has taken on more of a leadership role this season. The team has now played about 60 games together, she said, starting with a pair of summer leagues.
“And so we all got to know each other very well in order to be able to play together as a team, which is a big reason why we have so many assists, because we can trust each other with the ball and know that if I get it to my teammate, she can do something good with it,” Gajkowska told Patch.
Gajkowska, a forward and guard, said she and her teammates this year have also been putting in additional training hours.
“This year, a lot of us stay after practice and get extra shots off or come in before, whereas last year we kind of didn’t really do that as much,” she said. “I think that’s helping us a lot.”
Siriscevich said Oakton has also arranged to play more challenging opponents this year to prepare the squad for postseason intensity and test the team against some of the best in the nation..
“We tried to target the best teams from other regions and we just tried to play a little bit of a more competitive schedule, as we kind of evaluate who were the local teams that were good compared to some other out-of-state teams,” he said.
The Owls claimed home wins against Bay College of Wisconsin, ranked 16th in the country at the time, and Grand Rapids College, who made the quarterfinals of the national tournament last year, the coach recalled.
“We definitely were not afraid to go out-of-state to play teams,” Siriscevich said.
“By having five sophomores who went through this a year ago, their experience, their commitment to the program has definitely shown as far as the wins and losses,” he added. “And just the maturity of the kids has gone through this for a whole year has been amazing.”
Several players received post-season honors from the Skyway conference.
Sophomore Macey Gandee, a graduate of Indian Trail High School in Wisconsin, was named first-team all-conference after averaging 16.7 points per game with 8.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks. And sophomore Ellie Reynolds, a graduate of Westosha Central High School in Wisconsin, was named second team all-conference.
Three other players received honorable mentions from the conference: sophomore Aliyah Kvamme, from Niles North High School in Skokie, freshman Mariana Golombowski from Wauwatosa West High School in Wisconsin and freshman Shelby Humphrey from Anderson High School in Indiana.
Siriscevich said the team has appreciated all the support from the whole community, which has included visits by teams from other local schools and college officials and helped players go on to play at four-year schools.
“They really make the kids feel like they’re superstars on campus now,” he said. “They’re big shots on campus, because everybody knows who they are. They go to a local Subway and people know who they are, and they’re proud to wear Oakton gear.”
The 2024 NJCAA Region 4 Division II Midwest District B final between Rock Valley College (1) and Oakton College (3) will be available to stream live online.
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