WW South knocks Redhawks out of second place
Now things are starting to shake out.
With Thursday's 37-36 Wheaton Warrenville South victory against visiting Naperville Central, the Tigers boosted their bid for a good sectional seed next week and stayed alive in the DuPage Valley Conference girls basketball race.
"We all knew what was at stake," Tigers senior Sarah Langlas said. "We've got sectional meetings coming up and in the DVC there's a three-way tie (for second place). We just played awesome tonight and everyone played together and I just felt good for every single person."
"It's just a huge game," said WW South coach Rob Kroehnke, whose Tigers (13-7, 6-2) are two games behind Wheaton North. "In conference it still gives us a chance."
The Redhawks (14-7, 5-3) fell from that three-way tie with the Tigers and West Aurora into fourth place, all but ending their title hopes.
"Pray for a miracle," Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum put it.
The Redhawks entered the fourth quarter with a 4-point lead, but that evaporated quickly, with Langlas tying the score at 32 on a layup at the 6:12 mark.
A Lisa Lawrence basket gave Naperville Central the lead back with five minutes to go, but Maddy Close scored twice over the next minute to give the Tigers a 2-point margin.
"We came down the floor probably with that lead four times and just had bad possessions, but our defense came through and saved us," Kroehnke said. "We got some big rebounds, just some big stops."
"That was just great defensive effort," Langlas added. "Everyone really stepped up there."
Freshman Emma Ondik's 2 free throws with 1:28 to play tied the game again, but Close's free throw with 41.0 seconds left was the game-winner.
The Redhawks got the ball back one last time with 6.4 seconds remaining, but Ondik's runner at the buzzer hit both the backboard and rim and refused to drop in.
"I thought about calling timeout, but I thought she had beaten her defender and had a pretty good look," Nussbaum said.
Langlas led the Tigers with 16 points, but just as important were her 12 rebounds, 6 steals and 3 assists.
"Langlas, if she's not the best athlete in the conference, she's one of the top two or three," Nussbaum said. "She creates a lot of offense by stealing the ball on defense."
"She's been doing it all year for us," Kroehnke added. "At times she'll get a little out of control, but when she plays under control she's fun to watch. She really is. She can get up and down the floor, and she's always got her hands on the ball."
Senior Katie Atwood came off the bench to score 9 for the Redhawks.