Wheaton Academy tunes up with win over Glenbard S.
Wheaton Academy wanted a good challenge to prepare for the upcoming postseason. The Warriors got it.
Wheaton Academy pulled away in the fourth quarter to defeat Glenbard South 47-38 Wednesday night in Glen Ellyn in a game between the third and fourth seeds in the upcoming Class 3A Nazareth sectional.
"It's good to come out with the win," Warriors point guard Sydney Sharkey said. "It's a really important game for us, and it's getting us ready for the sectional."
Most important was how the Warriors (20-5) finished the game.
"I'm really proud of the way the girls played down the stretch," Warriors coach Beth Mitchell said. "I thought our basketball IQ was really good down the stretch. When we're at this point in the season, I have that expectation, and you have to have that to move on. Great win for us."
Both teams started slowly, but Wheaton Academy pulled away for a 27-19 halftime lead.
"Whenever we have energy we have a good game," Sharkey said. "It started out not so much intensity and then coach yelled at us and we got really intense."
Glenbard South (16-10) rallied to tie the game in the third quarter, only to see Wheaton Academy pull away again.
"We didn't show up in the first half," said Raiders coach Julie Fonda, whose team was celebrating senior night for Tess DiIorio, Allie Romano, Maggie Norton and Erin Anderson. "Our third quarter was tremendous, and then fourth quarter we got a little stagnant offensively. We had our opportunities, but we didn't convert."
Sharkey was the main culprit, jump-starting the Warriors with one of her four 3-pointers. She finished with a team-best 14 points.
"It started out kind of rough too," Sharkey said of her 3-point shooting, "but I just kept shooting like my dad tells me and they fell.
"She played great," Mitchell said of the sophomore. "She's really stepping up big time. She's looking to penetrate, making good decisions, knocking down some shots."
Wheaton Academy also got scoring help from senior post players Kristine Egebrecht and Meghan Grant, who finished with 12 points and 10 points, respectively.
Junior center Nevena Markovic led Glenbard South with 17 points, including the Raiders' only 5 points in the fourth quarter.
"Any time you come and beat Glenbard South on their home court it's a huge game," Mitchell added. "They have a great team. (Markovic) just gave us fits inside. Thankfully, we were able to take away that inside game by going back to our zone down the stretch there, then found some ways to score down here."