Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – When Jamie Smith saw his Solon girls basketball team opened the season against a top-five ranked defending state semifinalist he saw an opportunity to see how his team stacked up against one of the best teams in Class 3A.

With fourth-ranked Center Point-Urbana missing several starters including all-stater Ryley Goebel for Tuesday’s season opener Solon didn’t get the measuring stick matchup it imagined.

The Spartans did get a much-needed win and they got it in impressive fashion.

Solon (1-0) bolted to a 9-2 lead less than two minutes in and never trailed on its way to a 68-41 win over shorthanded Center Point-Urbana in a WAMAC cross-divisional matchup in Solon.

“That was a big win,” Smith said. “I don’t care who is there it’s been a long time since we won the first game of the season. I don’t care who they have here they played hard, they made some runs and they have some good players so it was a big win for us.”

A Class 4A semifinalist last season, Center Point-Urbana won 22 games a year ago including a 52-23 rout of Solon in the season opener.

The Stormin’ Pointers were without some key contributors on Tuesday, most notably its leading scorer from last season in Goebel, but Solon was impressive from the outset.

Heralded freshman Callie Levin scored a game-high 20 points in her prep debut to lead three Spartans in double figures as Solon won its season opener for the first time since 2017.

“We didn’t talk about who was here and who wasn’t we just said these are who their starters are,” Smith said. “We just wanted our kids to be ready to come out and play and I think they were.”

Levin hit the first shot of her career, a 3-pointer from the top of the key, eight seconds in the game and Solon never trailed.

Four different Spartans hit 3-pointers in the first quarter as Solon opened up an 18-4 lead.

Juniors Makinley Levin and Kaia Holtkamp followed the early 3-pointer by Callie Levin with triples of their own during a 9-2 Solon spurt to open the game.

Junior Ava Stebral hit a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left in the opening quarter to give Solon an 18-4 lead after one quarter.

“We definitely have been shooting a lot and I think we are moving the ball to get the best shot,” Makinley Levin said. “We know if we wait and we move the ball we will get a good shot. When everyone is on it’s so much fun and the 3s were falling for us early.”

The offensive stats for Solon stand out.

Solon made eight 3-pointers, had four players with at least nine points and the 68 points in the opener came after Solon scored 68 or more in a game just twice in 22 games a year ago.

Yet it was the defense that stole the show early.

“We have always been an offense-based team but this year we’ve started coming together as a team on defense,” Holtkamp said. “I think we are all on the same page and we understand how to be there for each other and the communication is there.”

Solon used its pressure, man-to-man defense to hold Center Point-Urbana without a field goal for more than 12 minutes to start the game while building a 27-6 lead midway through the second quarter.

Center Point-Urbana had just six free throws before Kailey Spurlock converted on a layup with 3:44 left in the first half.

“I don’t think we’ve played as a team defensively the past two years, we did that offensively but I think we are coming together,” Holtkamp said. “Now that we’ve played together for three years the defense is finally there for us.”

Solon led 37-16 at the half and staved off a couple of potential third-quarter runs by Center Point-Urbana.

The Stormin’ Pointers trimmed the lead to 41-29 with a 6-0 burst but Solon responded with a 12-2 spurt over the final 3:07 of the quarter.

Four different players scored during the 12-2 burst to end the quarter that was capped by an Elly Holubar layup off a Kaia Holtkamp feed with two seconds left.

“We’ve adapted the offense to our players and now that we know how to run it we can make it our own style,” Holtkamp said. “We work together well.”

Holtkamp finished with 13 points while Makinley Levin had 12 and sophomore Hilary Wilson had nine to go with the game-high 20 from Callie Levin.

Solon was 8-of-27 from 3-point range with five different players hitting a 3-pointer.

Sophomore Claire LaDage had a game-high 10 rebounds as Solon outrebounded Center Point-Urbana by six and held the Storming’ Pointers to 26 percent shooting.

“Some of those kids have been hearing it for a couple of years and I put my foot down even more this year with the defense,” Smith said. “We are going to get after it and I think a lot of it comes with it once kids trust you they will go to the end of the world for you and I think we finally have that trust.”

Solon                                      18  19  16  15  –  68

Center Point-Urbana            4   12  15  10  –  41

Solon (68) – Claire LaDage 1-4 0-0 2, Ava Stebral 2-5 0-0 6, Kaia Holtkamp 6-10 0-0 13, Makinley Levin 5-11 0-1 12, Callie Levin 8-16 2-2 20, Jada Buffington 1-4 1-2 4, Hilary Wilson 4-7 1-2 9, Elly Holubar 1-4 0-0 2, Totals 28-61 4-7 68.

Center Point-Urbana (41) – Tayler Reaves 1-8 0-0 3, Sierra Davis 1-4 0-0 2, Ryanne Hansen 3-8 2-2 9, Maggie Mathis 0-1 0-0 0, Emma DeSmet 4-8 9-12 17, Kailey Spurlock 1-6 2-4 4, Claire Neighbor 1-9 2-5 4, Aliza Mollenhauer 1-3 0-0 2, Totals 12-47 15-23 41.

3-point field goals – SOL 8-27 (Stebral 2-4, Holtkamp 1-5, M. Levin 2-6, C. Levin 2-8, Buffington 1-2, Wilson 0-2), CPU 2-7 (Reaves 1-4, Davis 0-1, Hansen 1-2). Rebounds – SOL 41 (LaDage 10), CPU 35 (Neighbor 8). Turnovers – SOL 16, CPU 21. Fouls – SOL 17, CPU 5. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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