Tigers turning season around
Slowly but surely Wheaton Warrenville South's boys basketball team is putting together a nice little season.
The Tigers earned their fourth straight win and sixth in seven games with Tuesday's 53-42 nonconference victory over injury-depleted Glenbard West.
Steady defense again proved to be the trademark for the Tigers. They've held opponents under 43 points in all six of their wins during this current streak.
Like so many other times, however, WW South (12-6) also came alive from the perimeter. Dan Phillip soared off the bench to knock down five 3-pointers, hitting his first five shots of the game and finishing with 17 points.
Nine of the team's 16 buckets came from beyond the arc. As a bonus, the Tigers also knocked down all 12 of their free-throw attempts led by Derek Babb's 10-of-10 shooting.
"We always talk about not taking steps backwards," Phillip said. "Now we're getting down to crunch time and we need to keep taking steps forward. We just need to keep getting better."
Glenbard West (7-10), meanwhile, can't seem to create any positive momentum for itself. After losing Chris Watt for the season with a shoulder injury, on Tuesday the Hilltoppers played without leading scorer Tyler Warden because of an ankle injury.
Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder is hopeful he'll have his talented 6-foot-6 junior back on the court for Friday's West Suburban Silver game against Hinsdale Central.
"We're kind of on a roller coaster right now and we need to get some consistency in our play and get some people healthy," Hoder said. "I thought tonight we gave ourselves a chance to be in the game, and that was encouraging."
WW South opened a 10-point lead at the start of the second half on Dan Hohenstein's midcourt steal and two-handed dunk. Glenbard West steadily rallied, pulling within 39-36 on Bryan Emanuel's 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter.
Glenbard West had another 3-point shot to tie, but it just missed. The Tigers responded with Will Dolatowski's 3-pointer and, off a steal, Phillip's fifth 3-pointer to boost the margin back to 45-36.
Babb, who also scored 17 points, hit six straight free throws in the final minute to extend the lead. Kevin Smith's 10 points paced the Hilltoppers, who were also perfect in 7 free-throw attempts.
"When we needed to make a play, we made a play," said Tigers coach Mike Healy. "It's not something where we constantly dominated, but we always responded. So that's a good sign for our kids."