WW South finishes strong at Naperville Central

Wheaton Warrenville South’s boys basketball team may be inconsistent at times, but the Tigers put together two pretty special minutes to close Tuesday’s game at Naperville Central.

Breaking open a tight game down the stretch, WW South pulled away to a 54-46 DuPage Valley Conference win over the Redhawks in a makeup game from last week’s blizzard.

Naperville Central (9-13, 2-8) narrowed the gap to 44-42 on Bryce Kirk’s 3-pointer with about three minutes left, but Reilly O’Toole’s third 3-pointer sparked a 10-4 run to end the game.

The Tigers (13-9, 6-4) broke out a zone defense that stymied the Redhawks throughout the final quarter. Naperville Central had done some damage in the post, but the switching defense thwarted any chance for a comeback.

While WW South knocked down three 3-pointers in addition to Dan Roadman’s three-point play, Naperville Central made only 2 of 14 shots from the field in the fourth quarter.

“We played a little bit of zone, which I thought kind of got them out of sync,” said Tigers coach Mike Healy. “They were kicking our rear ends in the post, so that helped us a little bit.”

What also helped were two key baskets that set the stage for WW South’s victory. In addition to O’Toole’s 3-pointer, Roadman’s three-point play put the Tigers ahead to stay at 38-37 with 5:34 left.

“We just kept up the intensity and didn’t let them get good shots,” said Roadman, who scored 13 points. “Switching to the zone seemed to work well. Offensively, we kept control of the ball, turned the ball, found the open guy and made our shots.”

Seven lead changes and seven ties highlighted the first three quarters as Naperville Central used an 11-0 run to build a 16-11 second-quarter lead. By halftime, though, WW South claimed a 26-24 advantage.

O’Toole led all scorers with 18 points and also grabbed 8 rebounds. Kevin Bridges added 10 points for the Tigers. David Niggins, who had 9 rebounds, paced Naperville Central with 17 points to lead eight Redhawks scorers.

“We played for about three-and-a-half quarters again,” said Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer. “It’s like a broken record. That’s what we do. And it’s too bad because this is a great group of kids, but you’ve got to play the full game.”