Wheaton Warrenville South 46, Downers Grove North 35

Like the referees, Wheaton Warrenville South's defense showed up late Tuesday night.

But when it finally arrived, it put a clampdown on No. 13 seed Downers Grove North to propel the fourth-seeded Tigers to a 46-35 victory in the Class 4A Naperville Central regional semifinals.

WW South (20-8) held the Trojans to 18 percent shooting from the field in the second half to win the girls basketball game, which started 40 minutes late as the teams waited for the officials to arrive.

"I told the kids at halftime, 'You win with your defense,' " Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke said. "We gave up 11 points in the second half, so I'm very proud of them."

After Downers North coach Darrin Travillian watched his Trojans (11-17) make 10 of 21 shots in the first half, he saw them shoot 3 for 17 in the final two quarters against WW South's trademark 1-3-1 defense.

Downers North Missy Blazej junior forward led all scorers with 18 points, 13 coming in the first half.

"In the first half I thought we did a good job shooting because we had a lot of wide open shots in the paint," Travillian said. "In the second half they did a better of limiting (Blazej) and we didn't do a good job of catching the ball and pulling the trigger. We didn't do a good enough job of being ready to shoot.

"And then we just didn't make wide open shots. … At the end we just got a little tight. The rim got small."

The Tigers led 27-24 at halftime.

They held a 36-32 lead early in the fourth quarter, then closed the game with a 10-3 run.

WW South senior forward Sarah Langlas did not start either half because she's overcoming a bout with bronchitis that caused her to miss three days of school last week, but she still managed a team-high 15 points in limited action.

"I probably played Sarah a little bit more than I wanted to, but I'm not going to let her sit on the bench for her last game, that's for sure," Kroehnke said.

"I'm pretty good," Langlas said with a hoarse voice. "I think we came out a little slow tonight, but a win's a win in the playoffs and we got it done. Tomorrow at practice we'll just try to put the spark back into our step."

Freshman forward Hannah Credille added 10 points for the Tigers, who will play DuPage Valley Conference rival Naperville Central for the regional title at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.