West Chicago handles Naperville North

It's not often a team shoots that well.

But after watching West Chicago shoot 81 percent from the floor in the final three quarters of the Wildcats' 66-50 victory, Naperville North coach Jacquie Discipio didn't have a shred of doubt about the number.

“Wow. I believe it,” Discipio said. “It felt like it. We knew West Chicago, they're a great team. They're good shooters. We were prepared for that. We knew our defense was going to have to be top-notch to stop them, but unfortunately we didn't really rise to the occasion today with that.”

West Chicago (14-5, 5-2 DuPage Valley Conference) shot 64 percent for the game and 77 percent at the free-throw line, where it scored 20 points.

“We were pretty hot,” West Chicago junior Allie Tapanes said.

The Huskies started well, trailing just 13-12 after the first quarter. The second quarter was a different story entirely.

“We wanted to come out stronger and we did,” Tapanes said.

“Oh my gosh, we had a great first quarter,” Discipio added. “The first quarter I thought we were in it, and then we had a terrible second quarter. We gave up 19 points.

“We played a better second half, but we've been struggling to put together four quarters all season, so when we're playing well and we're doing well, that's good, but our defense comes back to haunt us. I feel like that's what we were harping on with them. We have the mentality that we always want to go score, score, score, which is good because we're fast, but we have to take some more pride on our defensive sets.”

The Wildcats could be proud of their offensive sets. They hit from outside, with Tapanes hitting three 3-pointers, finishing with 19 points, and they were a force inside, where Mary Connolly scored the bulk of her 12 points.

“We started hitting our shots,” Tapanes said. “A lot of people were on other than just me.”

Zoe Swift led the Huskies (6-12, 3-4) off the bench with 13 points, and Shannon Bushman and Emily Koch added 11 apiece. The Huskies made just 34 percent of their shots.

It was a frustrating result for the Huskies, who are trying to break into the top half of the DVC.

“We're better than the bottom half, but we can't knock off one or two games in the top half,” Discipio said. “That's what we need in the second round of conference. We're competing with the upper half, but we're not able to finish.”