Waubonsie Valley rolls past South Elgin
The Waubonsie Valley girls basketball team, early in its game Tuesday night against visiting South Elgin, looked like a team that hadn't played in a week.
The Warriors' last action had been a 55-45 win at Neuqua Valley on Dec. 7.
However, after leading South Elgin just 13-9 after the first eight minutes, the Warriors got back into their routine big time, outscoring the Storm 61-25 the rest of the way en route to a 74-34 win. It was Waubonsie's fourth straight victory in a season when the Warriors have been strong from the start.
“We're right where we expected to be (at this point in the season) even down two starters and everyone was talking about what was going to happen to us,” Waubonsie coach Kim Connell said. “Tia Brooks has filled in nicely. Rachael Ross has been playing big. We expected to be here. This is not a surprise for us.”
The victory moved Waubonsie to 10-1 overall and 3-1 in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division. The Storm dropped to 2-7, 0-3. The Warriors are done with league play for 2010 and get set for the Wheaton North holiday tournament. The team begins play Monday against West Aurora.
“We came off a nice win against Neuqua last week. We just had a week off to work hard and we finished tonight with a good win and we're excited to go into the Christmas tournament,” Ross, who led all scorers with 18 points along with 12 rebounds, said.
South Elgin coach Tim Prendergast saw some positive things from his team as the first half came to a close. Waubonsie led 30-16 at intermission.
“We strung out a couple nice possessions at the end of the second quarter. I'm thinking maybe we can get this to six or seven and make it a ballgame. But they pounded the ball inside and we didn't have an answer for it,” he said.
A 14-point lead can be overcome, but Waubonsie's offense heated up with a 22-6 scoring advantage in the third quarter, and Waubonsie was on cruise control from there.
Also scoring in double digits for Waubonsie were Gratia Brooks with 14 and Jordan Myers with 11. Becky Williford had 8 points and 8 assists, the majority of which came as the Warriors pulled away in the first half.
“Teams have been playing us zone which opens the post players and gives the guards a chance to give us the ball. It's what we've seen the last eight or nine games,”Ross said.
Becca Smith led South Elgin with 14 points and was the lone player to cause any sort of dent in the Waubonsie defense.
“I thought she played well. She's a great player and works really hard. I thought (Waubonsie) did a nice job tonight. I thought they made her work really hard,” Prendergast said.