Mother McAuley sophomore Grace Gambotz is the perfect complement, a consistent contributor behind big-number producers Bella Finnegan and Morgan Feil.
But every now and again ...
“She’s unstoppable,” Feil said. “When she starts hitting her threes, she can take over a whole game.”
More on that later.
On Thursday night, Gambotz was in her regular role as a contributor as McAuley defeated Simeon 52-33 in a nonconference game.
Feil led the way for the Mighty Macs (17-10) with 15 points and seven rebounds. Maeve Egan scored 10 points, while Cailyn McLean had eight. Finnegan added six points and nine rebounds.
Nakia Bardney scored 13 points for Simeon (14-9).
Gambotz made her mark in several spots on the stat sheet. The 5-foot-8 guard finished with seven points, five rebounds, two steals and an assist.
Call it a regular night at the office.
“The most important to me is just getting a win,” Gambotz said. “If I can help my teammates who are having a good night, I’ll be there.
“When it’s my time to make plays, I can definitely feel it when I’m going to hit a shot.”
Gambotz scored a team-high 15 points on Feb. 8 against Providence. Back in December, she hit five 3-pointers and scored 19 points against St. Ignatius.
That’s feeling it.
McAuley coach Keisha Newell doesn’t pull back that green light to shoot.
“We know Grace is capable of having big games,” Newell said.
“She was super comfortable against Providence.
“Bella was being face guarded and Morgan was being face guarded. We relied on Grace to handle the ball and attack and she did a good job.”
Gambotz started on the varsity as a freshman — not a common occurrence at McAuley.
“The No. 1 reason was I thought she was good enough to start for us,” Newell said. “We try not to bring up players until they’re really going to contribute. And she did that.
“It was a short season, so I kind of feel like she missed out a little. But she started getting better toward the end of the season. This being her first full varsity season, she keeps getting better every day.”
Even when no one is looking.
“I’ve never met someone who works as hard as Grace,” Newell said. “She’s a gym rat. She comes before practice. She stays after practice.
“In the offseason, you’ll see her in the gym playing one-on-one and doing all of that stuff. She’s a competitor, too. She really loves to win. And she’s unselfish. I love that about her.”
Gambotz was on the short side in assists Thursday but made several quality passes that didn’t result in baskets. She did step out offensively in the third quarter, hitting a 3-pointer and a running bank-in.
“I like getting on the board, but I like getting the ball to our post players for assists,” Gambotz said. “I’m sometimes a point guard, mostly a shooting guard, but moving the ball and facilitating is most important to me.”
Feil can feel it.
“Grace is one of the best to get the ball into the post players,” Feil said. “She always looks for us and gets everyone involved. That’s what special about her.
“Even when she’s not having a good game scoring-wise, she always contributes to the whole team.”
Feil, meanwhile, was the big spark in the win over Simeon.
The 5-10 sophomore had a pair of 3-pointers and a layup as the Mighty Macs rebounded from an 8-6 deficit to take a 20-11 halftime lead.
Feil was huge on a night when Finnegan found her greater success rebounding.
“Even when Bella isn’t scoring, everyone knows to step up,” Feil said. “I was slow in the first quarter, so I knew that I needed to step up my game. And even if Bella didn’t score a lot, she still contributed to the team a lot.”