When Mackenzie Roesner was in grade school and played basketball, she was usually one of the tallest players on the court.
But when she got to Lincoln-Way West, she had already stopped growing, and being 5-foot-8 didn’t work for her quite as well as it did a few years earlier.
“When I started playing, I wasn’t much of a shooter,” Roesner said. “I was always bigger. But coming into varsity, I felt I needed to be more dominant with shooting.”
She learned quickly. And the sophomore guard has became a consistent 3-point threat.
Roesner hit five shots from beyond the arc in a 16-point performance Thursday night, lifting the Warriors to a 56-52 SouthWest Suburban Conference win over host Sandburg in overtime.
On top of that, Roesner also had four steals for Lincoln-Way West (7-1, 3-0) in Orland Park.
Caroline Smith scored 13 points, including three of Warriors’ four points in the OT, and added 15 rebounds and six blocked shots. Molly Finn chipped in with 14 points and nine rebounds, including a 3-pointer to tie the game in the closing seconds of regulation. Ava Tisch also had six steals.
Monique Nkwogu came off the bench and led Sandburg (3-4, 1-2) with 14 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots. Olivia Trunk tallied 11 points while her twin sister Zoe, who returned this week after an illness kept her out of the first five games, contributed 12 rebounds and five steals.
Lincoln-Way West, which has been walking a tightrope with slow starts, trailed 17-6 after the first quarter, with Roesner scoring all six on a pair of 3-pointers.
She also had nine points in the third quarter when the Warriors staged a comeback.
“Mackenzie definitely is clutch a lot,” Smith said. “Whenever we need an open three, we look for her. We’re really confident Mackenzie will make it. She’s a great shooter.”
How did it happen?
“I did a lot of practice and a lot of work,” Roesner said. “We practice after school every day and we get shots then. But also on the weekends, I’ll try to shoot and get as many shots in as I can.”
She also credits working with her father Ron, a former Oak Forest star, with helping her game.
“He teaches me to play aggressive and with a lot of energy,” Mackenzie said of her dad.
The Warriors need the energy. The makeup of this team is unique, with only eight players on the roster. Against Sandburg, four played the whole game, one played all but a few minutes in the second quarter and one came off the bench for those minutes.
Lincoln-Way West coach Ryan White knows the lack of depth, and slow starts, are a recipe for disaster.
“We’re trying to figure it out,” White said. “We’re lucky we’ve been able to escape our slow starts with victories. But at some point, it’s going to bite us.”
White believes his team is in good enough shape to handle the grind and likes that his players look stronger at the end of the games.
“We knew we would have a smaller roster,” White said. “They are in good condition, but we have to be smart. We’re not going to run them up and down if we’re playing two games in three days.
“We have a lot of shooters and we need their legs.”
Smith said the conditioning occasionally comes in the form of scrimmaging against freshmen boys.
But Roesner, who also plays softball, has been playing basketball since fourth grade. She enjoys the bonding that the sport brings into her life.
“We’re really close on the basketball court and outside of it, too,” she said.
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
