Naperville Central figures out West Chicago
Naperville Central seems to have figured it out.
Since losing one of its best players, Catherine Tanck, at its holiday tournament, the Redhawks struggled to learn to play without the 6-foot senior. Saturday's 61-46 victory at West Chicago suggests the Redhawks have made that transition.
"We've now hard, what, 15 games since Tanck tore her ACL?" asked coach Andy Nussbaum. "We're just now in the last four or five games to where we're one fist again instead of five fingers. It's hard when you tear one piece out and try to sew a different piece in."
The victory keeps the Redhawks (23-5, 11-2) in a virtual tie atop the DuPage Valley Conference standings with Wheaton North (10-2). The Redhawks have one conference game left, against Glenbard North on Thursday. The Falcons are at Glenbard East on Thursday, then host WW South on Friday in their regular-season finale.
"That's a very good win for us," Nussbaum said of defeating the pesky Wildcats. "And obviously at this point, where we are, any win is a good win."
"We were talking about how if they beat us it would make their season right now, but we weren't going to let it happen," Redhawks sophomore Jill D'Amico said. "With our big win over Wheaton North (on Thursday), we weren't going to throw it all away by losing to them."
West Chicago (14-10, 6-6) started the game looking like it might play spoiler, staying with the Redhawks in the first half as senior Jessica Baids scored 16 of the Wildcats' 20 points.
"She has stepped up," said West Chicago coach Kim Wallner, whose team has lost five of its last six games. "Even through our losing streak here ... she has risen above it and been our best player and most consistent player. I'm happy for her with that because she's worked extremely hard at her game. She's spent a lot of extra time beyond what I've asked her to do. She shot the ball really well, which I was happy to see."
Naperville Central needed to find a way to stop Baids in the second half and it did, allowing her just 4 shots.
"First of all we talked about it," Nussbaum said. "I don't know if our kids knew that she had that many points. We went box-and-one on her a little bit. ... Basically, we were giving her 100 percent attention, which we weren't doing in the first half."
While West Chicago focused on stopping Naperville Central guard Emma Ondik, other Redhawks stepped up. Emma Donahue had 16 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. D'Amico added 15 points and Claire Fleming had 12.
"They had some other kids that I haven't seen score against us kind of step up and score today more than what I've seen," Wallner said. "They had five scorers on the floor."
"Boy, our sophomores had a great day," Nussbaum added. "D'Amico might have had her best game. And Emma Donahue made some catches (of high passes) that I didn't think she was going to make. Just outstanding reach. I'm pretty happy."