Waubonsie win many miles in the making
Before the season the Waubonsie Valley boys basketball team took an overnight trip downstate, going to Champaign, Charleston and Tuscola, where the team practiced on the high school court on which Warriors coach Steve Weemer played.
“It was fun,” Warriors senior Tyler Edmondson said.
The trip helped the players develop a bond, Edmondson said, and that chemistry helped the team when Naperville Central threatened to steal a victory Saturday afternoon in Aurora.
Instead the Warriors (5-1) hung tough, holding on for a 59-56 nonconference victory.
“They pressured us a little bit and we did not take care of the basketball as we need to at the end of the game,” Weemer said. “The game before that we did. We have a lot of improvement to do. But I told the guys after the game, a win's a win. Sometimes you've got to win ugly, but we held onto one. A year ago we wouldn't have won that.”
The Warriors have changed a few things from last year, including their attitude, and it helped them get off to a good start against the Redhawks (2-4). They took an 18-16 lead after one quarter, thanks in part to sophomore Jared Brownridge hitting three 3-pointers to open the game, and never gave up the lead.
“When I was open my teammates got me the ball and I hit the shots. I wouldn't have made the shots if it wasn't for them,” said Brownridge, who finished with 17 points.
The Warriors took a 40-29 lead with 2:18 to play in the third quarter when Brownridge assisted an Edmondson lay-in, but they couldn't put the game out of reach.
“You've got to finish games,” Weemer said. “You can't let people hang around. We let them hang around and they hit a couple of shots at the end of the ballgame.”
The Redhawks went on a 9-2 run to narrow the lead and managed to keep the Warriors close every time they threatened again to pull away.
“That's just these kids,” Redhawks coach Pete Kramer said. “These kids aren't going to give up. We just kept battling, kept battling and finally caught a couple of breaks and we knocked down a couple of big shots. We were within striking distance and just came up a little short.”
Josh McMillan and Bryce Kirk each nailed a 3-pointer in the final 36 seconds to keep the Redhawks close, but the Warriors' Jakobi Johnson hit 3 of 4 free throws to seal the win.
“We've been unlucky to run into a couple of hot teams last night and tonight,” Kramer said of Friday's loss to West Aurora.
Weemer isn't ready to call his team a finished product, but he sees possibilities.
“We have an opportunity to be a pretty good team, but we have a lot of improvement we can work on and continue to do better as a team, and we will,” he said. “We're starting to get there, but we've still got a ways to go.”
Mike Schremp led the Redhawks with 17 points, David Niggins added 13 and Ian Lewandowski 10.
Edmondson and Johnson scored 12 apiece for the Warriors, and Austin Keys had 10 points.