West Chicago beats WW South in OT, leads DVC

Much to Claire Monroe's surprise, she found herself open beyond the arc without a hand in her face.

After draining a pair of 3-point shots in the first half Saturday at Wheaton Warrenville South, the West Chicago guard received extra attention in the key DuPage Valley Conference girls basketball contest.

But midway through overtime with the score tied at 27, Monroe took a pass from Izzy Bruce and had a good luck at the basket. She knocked down the 3-pointer, and it proved to be the only points scored in OT as the Wildcats improved to 12-4 while taking over first place in the league at 4-0 with the 30-27 triumph.

The Tigers, who could have been bunched up atop the league standings with a win, instead dropped to 11-5, 2-2.

"I was just left open for some reason and Izzy made a good pass out," said Monroe, who led all scorers in the defensive battle with four 3s and 14 total points. "It was real exciting but nerve-wracking too. I don't like those close games like that."

Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke didn't like seeing his team's golden chance at a share of first place in the DVC slip away. WW South led 21-19 after three quarters then took a 27-23 with just 2:41 left in regulation following back-to-back baskets from Kasey Gassensmith, who paced the hosts with 12 points off the bench. "It's very disappointing that we didn't finish," he said. "We had a great opportunity, but we let it get away."

Kroehnke wasn't surprised to see both teams play tough defense on Saturday, he just had hoped his team would have made a couple more shots and had a few less turnovers down the stretch.

"They play real good defense and we play real good defense and both teams are patient, and the clock runs," he said. "We usually play in the 30s, not the 20s. In the second half I thought we played tremendous defense, but we've got to figure things out."

The Wildcats scored just 2 points in the third quarter after leading 17-13 at the half, and then outscored the Tigers 8-6 in the final quarter to send the game into overtime.

After Gassensmith had given the Tigers that 27-23 lead, West Chicago drew even as Mary Connelly banked in a short turnaround jumper with 55.9 seconds on the clock and then Bruce hit both ends of a bonus free throw opportunity to tie the game with 28.8 seconds. WW South couldn't win in regulation as Annie Shain's 3-point attempt at the buzzer was off target.

"I knew what they do to teams so I talked it up to my players that we had to be up on defense ourselves," West Chicago coach Kim Wallner said. "Give (Gassensmith) credit, she had a heck of a game. We played pretty good defense and rebounded when we had to, but we feel lucky winning on their floor today."