The Alexander Graham Bell School girl’s and boy’s teams captured the CPS SCORE 7-8 grade elementary school basketball championships on March 19. The girls guided by head coach Mark Klein won their fourth title (2013, 2018, 2020, 2022) and the boys won their first ever championship led by head coaches Brett Maher and Greg Finger.
The Bell Blaze girls survived a late rally from Legacy Charter School to earn a hard fought 24-22 title win at Rickover Naval Academy behind the consistent play of Grace Lee and Gabriella Gonzalez.
Lee scored the gaming winning points with under 10 seconds to play and had a late game defensive steal to secure the win.
“I was in the right place for the rebound and got hit on the arm taking the (winning) shot. Really happy and glad it went in,” Lee said about her late game heroics.
Coach Klein and assistant coach Tom Pearl were concerned as they day wore on that fatigue could be a factor especially as the clock ran down in the final seconds of the championship game.
“When we play as a team we win as a team,” Klein admitted. “We were a bit-tired playing in our fourth game Saturday, but we persevered.”
Key contributors along with Lee and Gonzalez were forwards Charlotte Smythe and Drew Janovsky, along with guards Karley Pearl and Lilah Rosenfeld.
Gonzalez, Bell’s floor leader, left the contest briefly late in the fourth quarter with a leg injury with the score tied at 22 but returned with two minutes left to play.
“I wasn’t going to miss the end of the game,” Gonzalez noted. “It was fun and a great win.”
Bell defeated Suder Magnet School 45-30 in the boy’s championship final behind the stellar play of A.J. Chambers, Nico Wright, Chase Kaplan, and Nour Mohammad.
“At the beginning of the season we knew this team was going to be special,” Maher admitted.
On Championship Saturday at Whitney Young High School, the team didn’t waste any time sprinting out to early leads with consistent play in all four of their victories.
The coaching staff praised the team’s unselfish play, depth, and great chemistry as key factors to their success, having played with one another all through elementary school and in the Northside Basketball League (NBL) as eight graders.
Chambers was the lead floor general on the court and led the team in assists. Wright served as the team’s best rebounder while Mohammad’s shooting touch keyed the offense along with consistent play from Kaplan.
Congratulations to the Bell Blaze 2022 girl’s and boy’s city champions of the CPS SCORE 7-8 grade elementary basketball league.
