Wheaton Academy holds on against Glenbard South

After Wheaton Academy's girls basketball team returned last weekend from a seven-day mission trip to Puerto Rico, the Warriors could have been excused if they came out a bit tired and rusty in their first game in more than two weeks on Tuesday against Glenbard South.

"When we left Puerto Rico it was 87 degrees, warm and sunny," Wheaton Academy coach Beth Mitchell said. "When we arrived home, it was 7 degrees."

But, as has been typical of the Warriors all season, the hosts played like their usual tenacious selves from the opening tip. The Warriors were red-hot from the outset, carving out a quick 14-2 first-quarter lead before holding on thanks to some late-game heroics in a 33-29 victory in West Chicago.

The win created a three-way logjam with Riverside-Brookfield and Glenbard South atop the Metro Suburban Conference West Division. The teams are separated by a scant game with one month to play in the league schedule.

Wheaton Academy (13-4, 4-2) faced a tall task against the Raiders (9-7, 3-2). Glenbard South's 6-foot-1, 6-0 and 5-10 front line dwarfed the smaller Warriors. But Wheaton Academy has built its success all season on scrappy defense, hustle and all-out effort, and Tuesday was nothing different.

With the score tied at 29-29, Wheaton Academy guard Liana Ledesma secured a huge offensive rebound off a missed free throw, then was fouled and sank a free throw to give the Warriors the lead for good at 30-29 with 58.8 seconds remaining in the game.

Another Ledesma foul shot pushed the lead to 31-29, and Wheaton Academy salted the game away by forcing a Raiders turnover with eight seconds to go and then sinking two free throws by Chrislyn Herring with 4.8 seconds left.

"We're a team that plays with grit and never gives up," said senior forward Elizabeth Melby, whose back-to-back 3-pointers gave Wheaton Academy a 25-18 third-quarter lead. "That's what I love about this team. It's made up of gritty players - and not just one or two people but the whole team has that mindset. We come out with that mindset every game no matter who we're playing."

The smallest player on the court, Wheaton Academy point guard Jamie Netzley, sparked the Warriors to the 12-point first-quarter advantage. The Taylor University-bound senior repeatedly drove and finished in the lane for 10 points while the hosts outrebounded the Raiders 7-4 and limited Glenbard South to 2-of-10 shooting.

The Raiders regained their footing from there, cutting the lead to 18-12 at halftime. Glenbard South then outscored Wheaton Academy 9-0 in the fourth quarter to take its first and only lead of the game 27-25 on a lay-in by sophomore forward Ally Daca.

But Raiders coach Morgan Kasperek said the outcome was largely decided in the opening quarter.

"We didn't come to play in the first quarter," Kasperek said. "You can't spot teams 10 points like that, especially a team as good as Wheaton. We came out flat, and Wheaton did a great job of taking the ball to the rim, getting to the line and getting us in foul trouble."

Netzley paced Wheaton Academy with 14 points and led the Warriors' suffocating defensive effort.

"We struggled some offensively, but when you hold a team to 29 points, you're going to come out on the winning side most of the time," Mitchell said.