WW South perseveres against Naperville North

The book was a tough read.

Only one key statistic seemed to go in Wheaton Warrenville South's favor Tuesday night against Naperville North. Fortunately for the Tigers, points are the only stat that really matters, and the Tigers outscored the Huskies 51-48 in a DuPage Valley Conference contest in Wheaton.

“I don't know how we won,” Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke said. “I really don't. We played hard, that's the only reason. It's not because of our free throws, it's not because took care of the ball. It's because we worked really hard.”

Naperville North outrebounded the Tigers 40-30. The Tigers made just 14 of 43 free throws and committed 22 turnovers. All nine Tigers (6-1, 2-0) who played scored, but none in double figures.

“We're not where we want to be,” said Kroehnke, who plays two freshmen and two sophomores in his rotation. “We leaned on the veterans tonight. We've got to learn how to play in these types of games, there's no doubt. We made some decisions, we shouldn't be making those decisions.”

The Huskies (2-5, 1-1) led 24-19 at halftime, but the Tigers started the third quarter with a 13-3 run to take the lead.

“Our coach's talk at halftime really fired us up,” said WW South senior Ari Lee, who led the Tigers with 9 points and 8 rebounds. “He was upset with us. We knew we didn't want to lose like last year when they came in here and crushed us. We wanted to let them know that this is our house and that this is what we have to protect.”

They couldn't sustain that momentum, however.

Naperville North took the lead on a Caitlin Knoll basket, then made it 43-40 on Jenna Jatczak's runner. But the Tigers' Hannah Credille hit a 3-pointer to tie the game, and Annie Shain's 3 with 3:43 to play put WW South in the lead to stay.

“We're capable of making those little runs,” Kroehnke said. “But then just like that we're capable of letting them make a run.”

Shannon Bushman had 8 points, 3 steals and 2 rebounds in the fourth quarter to help keep the Huskies in the game. The 5-foot-4 junior guard finished with 18 points for the second consecutive game, to go with 11 rebounds and 5 steals.

It was reminiscent of last season's Huskies win in Wheaton.

“She likes this place, I guess,” Kroehnke said of Bushman.

Last year was “definitely” on the Tigers' minds, Lee said.

“Our coach kept stressing it,” Lee said. “Every time we were in the timeout, halftime everywhere. He kept saying don't let this be like last year.”

Kroehnke might say the same thing again next year.

“I still look at these stats and I wonder how we pulled it off,” he said.