Rovtar scores 14, West Chicago stops Naperville N.

West Chicago's girls basketball team finally put together the quality, tight-knitted game it has been looking for all season.

Plagued by injuries for much of the year, the Wildcats righted the ship Tuesday night with a 55-42 road victory over Naperville North (2-15, 1-5 DuPage Valley Conference).

Junior Chrissie Rovtar led the way for West Chicago with 14 points, including 10 in the first half to help keep the Wildcats within a point of Naperville North.

Rovtar's performance came as no surprise to Wildcats coach Kim Wallner, who has steadily seen an increase in the quality of Rovtar's play for some time.

"Chrissie's been really raising her game up," Wallner said. "We haven't had a lot of success as far as wins, but she's been progressively getting more consistent and showing up every game.

"She's really bringing more of a physical presence, she's rebounding better, she's more aggressive, and she's just gaining more confidence with her offense a little bit."

A 12-2 West Chicago run spanning the end of the third quarter and into the fourth gave the Wildcats (2-16, 1-5) some breathing room in the form of a 44-33 advantage. The visitors' full-court press forced numerous problems for the Huskies, who turned the ball over 15 times in the second half.

"I went with some younger kids that, to me, are a little bit more used to pressuring full court," Wallner said. "We kind of were going back and forth in that third quarter, and then all of a sudden we got a couple quick steals for quick baskets."

Several players off the West Chicago bench played key roles in the Wildcats' second victory of the year. In her first varsity game of the year, freshman center Emily Paschke scored 7 points on 3-of-5 shooting, while sophomores Molly Monroe and Izzy Bruce combined for 11 points.

"In previous games we haven't been able to come together, so this gives us confidence that we finally can work together as a team," Rovtar said.

"We have people moving up from different teams … and we finally molded together."

Huskies coach Jay Wachtel accepted responsibility afterward for his team's struggle against West Chicago's pressure.

"I could not figure out how to run a press break for three quarters of the game, and with two minutes to go I figured out we should be running a four-across press break that worked just fine," Wachtel said.