Baillie scores 27 in Wheaton North win

Maddie Baillie had plenty of answers against Naperville Central.

The Wheaton North junior guard led the Falcons with a game-high 27 points en route to a 73-53 win over the Redhawks, giving Naperville Central its first DuPage Valley Conference loss of the season.

“We didn't play our best defensive game and Baillie made us pay,” Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said.

Baillie finished with 12 points in the fourth quarter, including the last 8 to go along with a 6-of-6 effort from the free-throw line.

“My teammates were looking to get me the ball,” Baillie said. “We just ran our motion offense and everything worked really well.”

Wheaton North led from start to finish, but when down, Naperville Central responded.

However, each time Naperville Central cut the Falcons lead, Wheaton North answered with a run of its own. After the Redhawks trimmed the deficit to 10-8 in the first quarter, the Falcons went on an 8-0 run.

When it looked like Naperville Central (10-7, 4-1) would enter halftime down only by 4, Wheaton North (10-4, 3-2) answered right back with a bucket from Fantasia Vine and a 3-pointer by Brooke Schanowski to close out the half with at 39-30.

“We knew (the Redhawks) were going to go on their runs because they're a good team,” Wheaton North coach Dave Eaton said. “We knew we had to get out and defend them. Our kids did a good job of getting back and stopping them after a score.”

Down 56-43 entering the fourth quarter, Krissy Many scored the Redhawks' next 7 points on a pair of outside jumpers and a 3-pointer to trim the deficit to 56-50. From there Baillie began her fourth-quarter scoring output to keep Naperville Central at bay.

Vine also played a part in holding the fourth quarter lead, finishing with 5 points down the stretch including a putback and free throw that made the score 63-52.

“I was pleased with our mental effort,” Nussbaum said. “We just couldn't make shots at critical times. We missed shots that we would normally make because of their (Wheaton North's) intensity.”

Eaton was happy with his team's success, especially in a critical game to get the Falcons back in the conference race.

“We had a 2-2 start and we weren't happy with how we started off in conference,” Eaton said. “If we're going to have a shot at conference, we're going to have to take each game one at a time. This game helped get us back in the race.”