Wheaton Academy loses in coach's debut
Even by opening-day standards, Tuesday's girls basketball game at Glenbard South was sloppy. But that said, Raiders coach Julie Fonda will take a hard-fought 40-33 win over visiting Wheaton Academy.
Both teams struggled to hang on to the ball and didn't shoot particularly well, but tough defense and hard effort were on display as the schools tipped off the new campaign.
The Raiders (1-0) used a big first half from senior guard Jess Muniz to build a 25-14 lead but then had to survive a third quarter that opened with a 10-0 run by the Warriors (0-1) as Glenbard South turned the ball over six straight possessions.
"You can't sneeze at a victory, but it would have been nice if it were a little cleaner," Fonda said. "With this group, and I've had a lot of them since they were freshmen, our downfall has been the third quarter. We don't always come out for blood in the third quarter, and we've got to work on that."
Wheaton Academy coach Beth Mitchell made her high school coaching debut Tuesday in Glen Ellyn and was more than satisfied with her squad's effort, especially a pressure defense that caused the Raiders fits at times. She'll just need the Warriors to shoot better than the 18 of 48 they did in the opener and cut down the number of turnovers.
The Warriors had 15 turnovers in the first half while scoring 14 points and finished with 28 giveaways all told.
"I think for the first game to come in to play a team of this caliber and battle them the way we did is a good sign," said Mitchell, the former College of DuPage coach. "Our press gave them problems and we got steals. We just didn't finish."
With Muniz scoring 8 points on four drives to the basket, Glenbard South led 16-8 after one quarter. The lead was 11 at the break as Danielle Pipal tallied 6 of her 11 points in the first two quarters for the hosts. Guard Nikki Simpson had 2 points and did not play in the second half due to illness.
The Warriors made things interesting when Jennifer Lee hit a 3-pointer and Meghan Grant and Alexa Sharkey each scored inside to chop the 25-14 deficit to 25-24. But the Warriors hit a dry spell and the Raiders went inside to senior center Alicia Engelhardt for 3 third-quarter buckets as they upped their advantage to 33-26 after three quarters.
"Alicia's always kind of our rock," Fonda said. "She wants the ball in those situations and she's gonna get herself open. It's nice to have that go-to person when you need one."
Lee turned out to be the Warriors' go-to person and tallied 12 of her game-high 14 points in the second half, but it was too little too late. Wheaton Academy's Kristine Egebrecht led all rebounders with 9 in the game, while Muniz pulled in 6 to pace the Raiders.