Durrett has all the answers for WW South
Dillon Durrett was Wheaton Warrenville South's answer man Tuesday night.
Whenever Naperville Central pushed the Tigers - and the Redhawks did push pretty hard - Durrett always seemed to respond with a one-man run on his way to a personal-high 30 points.
Dominating the final nine minutes of the game, WW South won for the 11th straight time with a 69-50 DuPage Valley Conference victory at Naperville Central.
With three league games to play, the Tigers (24-1, 13-0) hold a 2.5-game lead over Naperville North (18-4, 10-2). A Friday win over Waubonsie Valley clinches WW South at least a share of the DVC title.
"We just buckled down," Durrett said. "We've got a tough group of kids. Our coach kind of lights that fire under us. We have to play correctly and play hard, and good things happen when you play with a group like this. All our guys have tremendous work ethic and tremendous focus."
Behind four of Noah Swope's five 3-pointers, the Redhawks (9-14, 4-9) led throughout the first half. Naperville Central narrowed a 10-point third-quarter deficit to 37-33 behind Ben Wolf's three-point play and a free throw, but Durrett responded with 9 straight points.
In addition to scoring 8 straight points in the second quarter, Durrett also tallied 7 straight in the fourth to put the game out of reach.
"We'll learn from this and regroup and try to get better," said Redhawks coach Pete Kramer, whose team entered Tuesday on a three-game winning streak. "We've come a long way, but we're disappointed with tonight. With our decision making and taking care of the ball, we kind of reverted to our old ways."
Swope led Naperville Central with 19 points before fouling out midway through the fourth quarter. Wolf added 11 while Drew Healy knocked down three 3-pointers and scored 12 points for WW South, which committed 5 turnovers.
"I was happy with what we did," said Tigers coach Mike Healy. "We made some good decisions on offense and we stuck with what we were trying to do defensively."
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