Willowbrook pulls away from Addison Trail

Willowbrook girls basketball coach Terry Harrell wanted his team to generate more opportunities on offense.

The Warriors did just that Saturday night at home against West Suburban Gold opponent Addison Trail, and it resulted in a 55-22 victory.

“We had stressed to the team to get more shots. We wanted to focus on taking more shots and allow our athleticism to show on the backboards,” Harrell said.

While their shooting percentage might not have been hot early on, the Warriors (5-3, 1-1) were getting the opportunities while at the same time playing tough defense and completely dominating on rebounding, 30-17. That choked off any offense that Addison Trail (4-4, 1-2) tried to generate before it could start.

Willowbrook led 12-4 after the first eight minutes on 4-of-15 shooting from the field while the Blazers were much more quiet at 2 of 7 with the Warriors leading in rebounding 8-2.

If Addison Trail could have replicated its second-quarter performance the rest of the game, this contest might have been closer. The Blazers kept pace 12-12 for the period on strong 5-of-9 shooting. Marissa Pezzopane scored all 6 of her points during the quarter, and Joann DiNatale hit for 4 of her team-high 8 then as well.

Pezzopane’s bucket 25 seconds before halftime cut the Warriors lead to a 24-16 and kept the Blazers within range.

DiNatale also led her team with 8 rebounds.

“Joann was tough tonight,” Blazers coach Rob Schader said.

The second half, however, was all Warriors. On 10-of-21 shooting in the third quarter, Willowbrook outpaced Addison Trail 25-2 to blow the game wide open.

The Warriors’ Colleen Lydon scored 10 of her game-high 17 points during the third period.

“Colleen played with a lot of confidence. She’s a senior and is playing like a senior,” Harrell said. “When she had opportunities to go to the basketball, she did.”

Colleen Krawczykowski was next on the Willowbrook scoresheet with 12 points. Cherise Porter was big on the boards with a game-high 10 rebounds. Colleen Lydon had 8 and Erma Udota grabbed 6.

Addison Trail went into the game after earning a 58-32 win at home over Leyden the night before.

“Handling back-to-back games for this team is tough. They haven’t learned that yet. We got killed on the boards and we committed 23 turnovers,” Schader said.