Naperville North shocks WW South 47-43

Naperville North made it clear right from the start Wednesday night that this game would be different.

The Huskies built an early double-digit lead at Wheaton Warrenville South and then withstood the Tigers' frantic rally for a 47-43 upset victory in Wheaton, knocking the Tigers two games back of Wheaton North in the DuPage Valley Conference race.

"This is huge," Huskies senior Colleen Warren said. "We're not having the greatest season this year, and it's just always great to beat one of our rivals and just come out and have an upset."

"Wheaton Warrenville South is always a good team to beat," Huskies coach Jacquie Discipio added. "They know how to win, they're strong in our conference, they're coming off a big win against (Naperville) Central (on Saturday), so I am thrilled. Our girls played so hard."

Instead of attacking Wheaton Warrenville South's 1-3-1 zone defense, the Huskies patiently made the Tigers come out and force the action. It worked, with the Huskies (5-17, 4-6) taking a 14-4 lead on sophomore guard Shannon Bushman's nearly half-court 3-pointer at the first-quarter buzzer.

"I told them we want to use the time on the clock and make (the Tigers) feel uncomfortable and then score," said Discipio, whose team led the whole game. "Those were our three offensive options."

"We talked about controlling the tempo of the game," WW South coach Rob Kroehnke added. "When we let them jump out to a lead like that, they control it. We were at their will."

The Naperville North lead peaked at 14 points in the second quarter after a pair of Bria Walker 3-pointers and was 9 at halftime, but WW South whittled away at it in the second half.

"We knew they were going to come out really aggressive since we were ahead," Warren said, "and we knew that we just needed to keep our mental toughness."

The Tigers pulled within 3 points with 4:38 to play, but Warren made 4 straight free throws and freshman Zoe Swift added a breakaway layup to boost the lead back to 9 points.

"Our free-throw shooting was amazing in the stretch," said Discipio, whose team made 15 of 19 in the final five minutes, 17 of 24 for the game.

Back came the Tigers again, pulling within a point on a Caitlin Schwark 3-pointer with 11.7 seconds to go, but Swift made a pair of free throws and senior Ashley Weizeorick added another to ice the game.

"We made a great effort," Kroehnke said. "... We got ourselves back in it but couldn't finish the deal."

The Tigers couldn't finish, but the Huskies did, and that made the game special for them.

"Our girls are finally learning how to compete," Discipio said. "I was more nervous having the lead going into the second half because we are very uncomfortable and very young with that. It was a great testament to how far we've come from the beginning of the season to now that we were able to maintain control and maintain composure and hold onto the win at the end."

The loss pushed the Tigers (16-6, 6-3) to third place behind Wheaton North (7-1) and Naperville Central (8-2).

"We still have control," Kroehnke said. "We're two games down and we have two games left with Wheaton North. So really we're still in position where we can do some things.

"Obviously, Naperville Central is going to want to have part of that. It doesn't put us in a great spot, but we can still finish out the season on a high note. We're going to find out what type of character we have on Saturday (against the Falcons), that's for sure."