Ottolin, WW South control the boards, edge Glenbard West
Katie Ottolin just loves rebounding.
That was evident Tuesday when Ottolin grabbed 16 boards, 9 off the offensive glass to give the Wheaton Warrenville South girls basketball team a 41-37 win over host Glenbard West on the Hilltoppers' senior night.
The Tigers (19-7) took the lead at 12-11 on a putback by Destiny Neal midway through the second quarter and the Hilltoppers (15-12) never got it back, although they narrowed the gap to 2 points twice in that period and to 3 points four times in the fourth quarter.
But it was the hard-nosed hustling play of the Tigers, especially Ottolin underneath, that made the difference.
"We talk about what our roles are on the team, and my role is rebounding," Ottolin said. "Any ball I can possibly get my hands on, I will go and get it. Whether it's falling on the floor or it means boxing someone out, I will go and get it."
Neal and Caitlin Schwark were also tenacious on defense and going after loose balls, and sophomore Kasey Gassensmith played her role on offense and at front of the zone defense.
"The last few weeks, Kasey's probably been our best player," said Wheaton Warrenville South coach Rob Kroehnke. "And she's only going to get better."
Schwark led the scoring with 15, while Gassensmith scored 13 and Ottolin added 10 points.
The Tigers played without starting forward Heidi Ansiel, who injured her ankle Saturday.
WW South committed 21 turnovers and shot 19 of 35 from the free-throw line, but the Tigers hit some key free throws at crunch time.
"There's no doubt that we have to make better decisions with the basketball," Kroehnke said. "And we'd love to shoot better. But these kids have learned how to play unbelievable defense and go after the rebounds. When you do those things good things happen. I like where we are, sitting on 19 wins with essentially the same people who won only six games last year. This was a great game to have as we near the playoffs."
The Tigers finished with the victory, but the Hilltoppers defense wasn't too shabby either, holding WW South to 0 field goals in the third quarter.
"I wanted the girls to play pressure defense," said Glenbard West coach Mike Hofland. "We were working on that and we got overly aggressive. I'd rather that than the passive defense we've been playing lately. We'll learn not to foul."
Hofland credited WW South with doing a nice job defensively.
"They did a good job of packing it in and we missed a lot of outside shots," Hofland said. "We also didn't move the ball around quickly enough in the first half. I thought we moved the ball better in the second half."
Cayla Herbst led the Hilltoppers with 9 points, while Alex Capeles scored 7.
Lauren Davis was outstanding off the bench with all of her 7 points in the fourth quarter.