Girls basketball season has officially started for the six teams that hit the hardwood at the Reed-Custer Comet Classic on Monday evening.

In the first day of pool play in the five-day tournament, the host Comets as well as Kankakee picked up blowout wins to get their seasons underway. Wilmington played Grant Park in the final of Monday’s three games.

Reed-Custer got the tournament started with a 55-24 win over Grace Christian.

The Comets are leaning on a group of four seniors and six juniors this season, many of which were big pieces of last season’s regional championship team, the first for the program since 2006.

Head coach Shelby Zwolinski said the team has done a great job carrying over some of what worked for them a season ago to start the 2025-26 campaign strong.

“I was very proud of how hard they worked,” she said. “We’ve been battling each other for two full weeks at practice, and they were coming out ready to play tonight. I was very proud of every effort I saw out there on the floor.

“We definitely have not missed a beat coming off the regional championship, even into this summer.”

Alyssa Wollenzien led the team with 20 points on Monday. Morgan Toler also was in double figures with 10 points while Harlie Liebermann and Kamry Wilkey added eight and seven points, respectively.

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Girls Basketball - Reed-Custer Classic: Reed-Custer vs. Grace Christian Reed-Custer's Alyssa Wollenzien drives the basket under pressure from Grace Christian's Kaitlyn Jorgensen during the Comets' 55-24 victory over Grace Christian at the Reed-Custer Classic on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (Tiffany Blanchette)

Grace Christian also brings back plenty of experience this season after fielding a very young team a season ago with a starting five of two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior.

All those players are back, including sophomore point guard and last season’s leading scorer Zoey Baldridge, who led the team with nine points Monday. Kaitlyn Jorgensen added eight points, while Analiese Jorgensen added five.

“I think our girls realized quick tonight the level at which they’re going to have to play to take the next step for us,” head coach Jon Chappell said. “I’m looking forward to getting the year started and learning from one game to the next what we’re doing well, and what we need to work on once we get closer to our conference schedule.”

For Kankakee, it was a 75-28 victory over Rosary that got the Kays off on the right foot.

Junior forward Ava Johnson had 23 points to lead the Kays. After playing her freshman season at Bradley-Bourbonnais, Johnson moved over to Kankakee last season and led the team with 15.4 points and eight rebounds per game.

Now with the Kays, she’s excited to see how the rest of the season will unfold.

“This year, I’m definitely more used to it, and I know how we play now,” Johnson said. “I’m really looking forward to how far we can go because I know we can go far this year.”

Malea Harrison, another key piece of a large junior class that will lead the way for the senior-less Kays, added 18 points Monday. Ki’Asia Wilson and London Stroud added 10 and eight points, respectively.

Head coach Kurt Weigt said the junior core is more than capable of leading the team that will be without any senior leadership.

“As a group, the collective junior class has been together for a long time,” he said. “Ava is a new addition, but in year two you can already see they’re used to each other and jelling. We had a great summer, so that just kind of carries over and gets restarted.”

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Girls Basketball - Reed-Custer Classic: Kankakee vs. Rosary Kankakee's Jasyia Wesby drives to the basket under pressure from Rosary's Kayla Shimp during the Kays' 75-28 victory over Rosary at the Reed-Custer Classic on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (Tiffany Blanchette)

Rosary is a young team once again this season. The Royals had just three seniors and no juniors a season ago, so their eight sophomores and four juniors bring back plenty of experience. They are joined by three freshmen to reinforce the graduated seniors.

Sophomore Zoe Mesner led the team with nine points, five of which came in the first quarter, while freshmen Grace Bergeron and Aleah Luna had six and four points, respectively, to get their high school careers underway.