Wheaton North overcomes Glenbard South

Last week Wheaton North proved it can come back from a double-digit deficit.

On Tuesday the Falcons showed they can withstand that kind of comeback.

Wheaton North pulled away from Glenbard South late in their nonconference game in Wheaton to earn a 51-34 victory.

“We played really well,” junior point guard Reilly Stewart said. “We came out and executed our plays. We played defense really well and came out ready to go.”

Wheaton North (4-6), which fell behind by double digits in the first quarter of Thursday’s win at West Chicago, took a 12-2 first-quarter lead on Maddie Baillie’s runner in the lane. The Raiders whittled away at the Falcons’ lead gradually, going ahead 23-22 early in the third quarter on sophomore Stefani Bazigos’ 3-pointer off a Patrice Hicks assist.

“I told the kids, this game isn’t over,” Wheaton North coach Dave Eaton said. “You’ve got to come back and get ready to play. We made some mental mistakes there and sort of just relaxed rather than trying to keep our foot on the gas and keep playing. Our kids did a good job in the second half, settling into what we wanted to do and getting into our game.”

“Definitely a positive,” added Raiders coach Julie Fonda of the comeback. “They worked incredibly hard, and they could have cashed it in and they didn’t. That’s definitely something we take away from here.”

The lead was short-lived. Jaquala Hillman converted a three-point play the next trip downcourt, and after a Hicks basket tied the game at 25, 5-foot-8 senior Maddie Baillie scored 7 consecutive points to end the quarter. She finished with a game-high 20 points, plus 5 steals.

“Baillie stepped up big,” Eaton said. “Baillie came out, hit a couple of big shots in a row, took it on her shoulders, hit a couple of turnaround jumpers, got the ball inside, took some high-percentage shots and then hit a big 3. That was big for us.”

“(Eaton) does a nice job of isolation,” said Fonda, whose team was without 6-3 freshman Sydney Bauman due to a sprained ankle. “Obviously, Stefani is a smaller player than Maddie is. That’s tough on Stef. She doesn’t typically have to play post defense. All of a sudden she’s in the post and we’re trying to talk her through it. We can definitely change up defensively on that. But Baillie did a nice job and Dave did a nice job calling those plays.”

The Falcons’ momentum continued into the fourth quarter, with the lead hitting double digits again with 6:26 to play on Mandy Traversa’s 3-pointer.

“The second half we actually started to play as a team like we did in the first quarter and executed well,” Stewart said.

Bazigos led the Raiders (6-4) with 13 points, and Hicks had 8 points and 8 rebounds.