Downers Grove South escapes Willowbrook

But for a few missed layups, Willowbrook might have handed Downers Grove South its second girls basketball loss of the season.

Instead, the Mustangs breathed a sigh of relief after they won the West Suburban Gold game 48-44 Tuesday night in Downers Grove.

"We're a very young team, which is a positive when we're winning," Mustangs coach Lyndsie Long said. "We have a starter (sophomore Marissa Metz) out with a concussion, which makes a lot of changes in our lineup and our game plan.

"But we're winning right now and we're going to have a tough battle on Saturday with Proviso East. It'll be a big contest for us, probably the biggest one yet this season and maybe the biggest one we'll have all season until regionals come around. We're doing well, but we haven't played our best basketball yet."

The Warriors, meanwhile, were left to ponder a game they could have won.

"We made enough plays to win the game, we just didn't make enough shots," Willowbrook coach Terry Harrell said after his team finished 12 of 44 from the floor. "We made plays on the floor, we controlled the pace of the game, we took them out of what they wanted to do."

Neither team led by more than 7 points, and the lead changed hands 10 times. The last lead change came with 4:32 to play on two free throws from Mustangs junior Addyson Wesolowski that made the score 40-39. The Warriors (3-6, 1-2) came within a point twice more but never could catch the Mustangs (6-1, 2-0) again.

Wesolowski finished with half the Mustangs' points, going 8 of 12 at the free-throw line.

"She played a great game for us," Long said.

Senior Kaylin Konrath led Willowbrook with a personal-best 18 points on 12-of-13 free-throw shooting.

"Kayla had a big game for us, a really good game," Harrell said.

Senior point guard Dani Velasquez added 12 points, some of the circus variety.

The Mustangs held Warriors post presence Josie Zabran to 6 points on 2-of-3 shooting.

"They double- and tripled-teamed Josie," Harrell said. "You've got to expect that."

"We had a good game plan against her," Long added, "but we let another girl score (18) points on us."

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