Girls basketball: New players, same lofty expectations for Sycamore

DeKALB – With eight seniors gone from last season’s regional championship girls basketball team, including three core starters, Sycamore coach Adam Wickness said the Spartans have had the most turnover in his time at the helm.

But he also said expectations still are high for the team with players such as Quinn Carrier, Cortni Kruizenga and Grace Amptmann ready to have their roles greatly expanded.

“For the past two years, obviously there have been amazing people who have just graduated,” said Amptmann, a rising junior who has mostly been a back-of-the-rotation defensive stopper in her first two years. “So I haven’t had to be as big a threat on offense or defense. But I think I’ve stepped up my offense to try and help us more, and I’m going to keep trying to score more so we have more options.”

Reigning Daily Chronicle Girls Basketball Player of the Year Lexi Carlsen graduated and is getting ready to play at NIU. Two-time Daily Chronicle All-Area first-team selection Monroe McGhee also has graduated, as has two-time All-Area pick Sophia Klacik, who was a first-teamer in 2024.

But in her freshman year, Carrier became more and more of a scoring threat as the year went on and also provided lockdown defense behind the deep group of seniors.

“Lexi, Roe, Soph, with them all being gone, we did learn a lot from them,” Carrier said. “I know how to be that leader now, looking up to them. As long as I’m just being aggressive on both sides of the court it will end up being fine.”

Only two seniors will be on the roster this year, Kennah Butler and Abby Oster. Both saw most of their minutes at the JV level last year.

Amptmann and Kruizenga, both rising juniors with two years on the varsity team, are among the most experienced varsity players.

“Defense is mostly like my specialty,” Kruizenga said. “I know I have to do it on both defense and offense, as well, this year.”

Wickness said he’s liked how the whole team has progressed. He said Amptmann and Kruizenga are working hard on becoming complete players.

“They haven’t had to do too much offensively over the past couple years,” Wickness said. “I told them they’re really going to have to step up and set the tone for how practices are going to go, how summer is going to go, and I need a lot of vocal leadership out of you two.”

Carrier went from a little-used player early in the season to being a reliable scoring threat and starter for the Spartans by the time the season ended.

Wickness said the rising sophomore is adjusting to taking over as the main scoring threat.

“Going from a complementary piece, where she kind of took over the role as kind of that third scorer toward the end of the season, to kind of being the alpha, where we’re looking for her to create a lot, it’s a big adjustment, especially for someone who is a sophomore,” Wickness said. “But she’s ready for the challenge. She’s tackled everything I’ve asked her to do head on.”

The Spartans are 44-24 over the past two seasons and have won a regional the past four postseasons. They’ve won eight regionals since the 2014 season and have at least 20 wins in every full season in that stretch.

They’ve also won 15 straight games against rival DeKalb and have won five straight Interstate 8 Conference titles.

“Big games like the [FNBO] Challenge or conference, we don’t want to be the ones to give that up,” Amptmann said. “We want to keep working hard every day so we can keep that going.”