Prep basketball: Cooks named top girls player in state.
Michigan State recruit Sidney Cooks is The Associated Press’ girls basketball player of the year in Wisconsin after a stellar career as a four-year starter at Kenosha St. Joseph.
Cooks averaged 27.6 points and 13.8 rebounds as a senior, to go with 2.9 assists, 2.6 blocks and 1.8 steals. The 6foot-4 Cooks finished her career with 1,909 points.
She scored nine points and went 3 of 5 from the field in 16 minutes in the McDonald’s All-American Game on Wednesday in Chicago.
The AP coach of the year is Howards Grove coach Heidi Georgeff. She led the school to its first title in its second tournament appearance following a 44-43 victory over La Crosse Aquinas.
Howards Grove (27-1) finished the season with a 26-game winning streak.
The remarkable run included a stretch of close games for a senior-laden team.
“We’re used to battling through some of these close games toward the end,” Georgeff said in the Sheboygan Press after the school won the title on March 11 in Ashwaubenon. “When it was close at the end, I was pretty confident things were going our way.”
Howards Grove defeated Cooks and St. Joseph, 52-50, in a sectional final on March 4. St. Joseph was the Division 4 state runner-up in Cooks’ junior season.
Otherwise, Cooks’ prep career was a smashing success, with St. Joseph going 83-13 during her four years.
“She can handle the ball, she can shoot threes, she posts, she has a number of moves, she can block shots, honestly, there’s nothing she can’t do,” St. Joe's coach Lynell Collins said. “She stuffs the stats line, but she’s an unselfish player, too. She gets stats within the framework of her team.”