WW South routs St. Charles North
When you are a basketball team and you are facing one of the biggest weeks of the season, you want to make sure you are playing well going into it.
That certainly can be said for the Wheaton Warrenville South girls squad, which cruised 64-30 Saturday afternoon against visiting St. Charles North.
The Tigers take their No. 7 Daily Herald ranking and 8-0 record into a stretch of games that starts Tuesday night at home against No. 15 Naperville Central in a DuPage Valley Conference contest. That follows with a Thursday game against No. 12 Benet at the Benet/Naperville North Holiday Tournament followed by a Friday battle vs. No. 10 York and a Saturday tournament game against No. 2 Geneva.
“It’s a big week. We really need to come prepared for big games,” said sophomore Maggie Dansdill, who pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.
The Tigers’ shooting was a bit cool at the start against the North Stars (3-7) , but it heated up to a 9-of-17 performance at the end of the first quarter and WW South was ahead 18-6. A good portion of the Tigers’ made shots were layups.
The North Stars were only 2 of 8.
St. Charles North’s shooting woes continued in the second quarter with a 2-of-9 effort. But more glaring was a lack of scoring opportunities for the North Stars, and the WW South defense caused that with heavy and unrelenting pressure in the first half.
“Our main focus is playing great defense. We stay in the game with defense and take pride in it,” said Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke. WW South led 33-12 at halftime and 56-20 after three quarters.
With such a big week coming up, Kroehnke wanted his team to stay focused and sharp despite the outcome not being in doubt.
“I told them to take care of business and that some things needed to be cleaned up,” he said.
Life was good offensively for WW South. Kasey Gassensmith put through a game-high 18 points. Meghan Waldron hit for 14 as did Sierra Bisso.
“It’s very fun (being 8-0),” Dansdill said. “ It’s fun coming to play every game.”
“It’s a great group of players to coach. They work very hard together,” Kroehnke said.
As for the North Stars, coach Colleen Brennan continues to see momentum with a team on which the underclassmen outnumber the seniors.
“Our hustle has been intense and (the players) don’t give up. It’s a wonderful group of kids to work with. They are progressing one day at a time,” she said.
Sophomore Liz McNally led the North Stars with 10 points.
“She’s learned a lot about to compete. She’s a very coachable kid and makes progress like everyone else,” Brennan said.
Leading scorer Alex Silverman injured her ankle during Friday night’s defeat at Streamwood and did not play Saturday. Brennan said Silverman will get an X-ray Monday.
The North Stars close out 2011 Upstate Eight River play Wednesday night with a home game against St. Charles East. The team is then off until the Dundee-Crown Holiday Tournament that starts Dec. 26.