Intensity leads Wheaton Academy

The Glenbard South and Wheaton Academy girls basketball teams have a lot in common.

They both play fast, aggressive, full-court basketball.

Glenbard South's Meghan Pipal is the DuPage County leader in steals, averaging 5.2 a game. No. 2 on the list is Wheaton Academy junior Alexa Sharkey at 4.9.

The teams are even in the same Class 3A sectional, the Warriors seeded third, the Raiders fourth.

All of which made Saturday afternoon's nonconference matchup - a 57-49 Wheaton Academy victory in West Chicago - all the more interesting, not to mention extremely difficult for the two-man officiating crew.

"Glenbard South is a great team with great size, so it's a huge win for us to be able to come out with a victory in this game," Warriors coach Beth Mitchell said. "We did a great job just kind of handling what they threw at us, and just kind of mixing things up defensively kind of kept them off balance, which worked to our advantage."

Coming off a 3-point loss at Western Sun Conference foe Batavia less than 24 hours before, the Raiders started slowly, falling behind 20-6 after one quarter.

"They were tired," Glenbard South coach Julie Fonda said. "I mean, they played their hearts out last night. ... I'm proud of the way they played the second, third and fourth quarters. The first quarter, that's the game right there."

The Raiders (14-11) regained their balance in the second quarter and kept going after Wheaton Academy (23-1), but the Warriors never let the margin get below 6.

"We knew we just had to pick it up, come back and hit a bunch of shots," Sharkey said.

"They're a really physical team, really strong, drive a lot, drive really hard," Pipal said. "We definitely did a way better job of stopping them in the second half.

"It was an intense game. They're a good team, so give them props."

Sharkey led Wheaton Academy with 19 points and padded her steals total with 6 more, plus 6 rebounds. Leah Fortune added 11 points and 5 steals, and Meghan Grant, the lone post player in the Warriors' four-guard starting lineup, scored 10 points.

Raiders sophomore Nevena Markovic led all scorers with 20 points to go with 12 rebounds and 5 blocks. Freshman Patrice Hicks added 11 points. Pipal increased her average with 7 steals.

Wheaton academy 57, glenbard south 49

Glenbard South - Schwerdtmann 0 2-3 2, Pipal 2 0-0 5, Hicks 5 1-3 11, Despot 2 0-2 4, Markovic 7 6-9 20, Yasak 0 1-2 1, Podgorski 0 0-0 0, T. Di Iorio 2 0-0 6. Totals 18 10-19 49.

Wheaton Academy - S. Sharkey 1 3-4 6, Fortune 4 2-2 11, Grant 3 4-5 10, A. Sharkey 5 9-15 19. Lee 1 2-4 4, Egebrecht 2 1-2 5, Zaderaka 1 0-0 2, Bell 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 21-32 57.

Glenbard South 6 17 9 17 -49

Wheaton Academy 20 11 9 17 -57

3-point baskets: GS: Di Iorio 2, Pipal. WA: S. Sharkey, Fortune.

Fouled out: GS: Schwerdtmann. WA: A. Sharkey.