Maddie Stock Named Female Athlete of the Winter

St. Joseph's Academy guard Maddie Stock opened the 2010-11 season by connecting on six 3-pointers in a victory over Belleville Althoff.

The 6-foot-1 junior ended her season in the Class 5 third place game at the Mizzou Arena in Columbia by scoring 19 second half points in a loss to Webb City.

And Stock had plenty of highlights in between and has been named as the Ladue-Frontenac Patch Female Player of the Year for the winter season.

"Maddie came out of the gate strong and took the team on her shoulders," Angels coach Julie Matheny said. "She is just an all-around very talented and gifted athlete who is passionate about the game of basketball."

Stock had another six 3-point game as she scored 33 points in a win against Nerinx Hall and had five 3-pointers against Rosati-Kain. Those also occured in the first five games of the season.

Stock had 20 points and six steals (she averaged 4.4 steals a game) in a one-point loss to Incarnate Word in the championship game of the Visitation Christmas Tournament.

She has her lowest scoring output (five points) in a loss against Notre Dame de Sion on Feb. 11 but followed that up with a season-high seven 3-pointers and 33 points in a win against St. Teresa's the next day.

But the highlight of the season for Stock came in a contest in which she scored just 11 points as the Angels defeated eventual state champion Incarnate Word to clinch the MWAA White Division championship.

"It is always fun to beat your rival," Stock said. "We got behind 20-9 in the first quarter and had to come back. Everyone had a good game and there were tons of students at the game. It was just a fun atmosphere."

Stock finished the season averaging a team-high 17.4 points per game. She shot 52.4 percent from the field, 77.3 percent from the line and 37.0 percent from 3-point range.

"Maddie is what I call a sneaky scorer," Matheny said. "She gets a lot of defensive attention but she has the quick release and this year she has added the step-back and done some more dribble penetration."

Maddie, her sister Morgan and Sydney Stipanovich were all named to the first-team all-conference squad. And all of them will be back next year as will sophomore Erin Nelson, who was the area's top player coming off the bench.

"I felt I had some good games this year and some bad ones," Stock said. "But I played as hard as I could every game. I have been playing basketball all of my life and I just love it.

"Morgan, Sydney, Erin and I are all playing on a team (the St. Louis Spirit) this summer. I am going to work on some inside moves and just work to get stronger. I am really looking forward to next season. Hopefully we can make it back to the final four."