WW South flies past Naperville Central
Kasey Gassensmith wasn’t about to let Naperville Central leave her home gym with another win.
Gassensmith scored 24 points, and No. 6 Wheaton Warrenville South won its matchup of defending DuPage Valley Conference co-champions in emphatic fashion, blowing out the No. 12 Redhawks 67-37 Tuesday in Wheaton.
The Tigers (9-0, 3-0 DVC) beat the Redhawks for the first time in Wheaton since the 2007-08 season, when the WW South seniors were in eighth grade.
“For me and (fellow senior) Krysta (Watts), this was our last chance,” Gassensmith said, “so it feels good. Naperville Central is a great team, but I think we definitely proved that we are the team to beat in the DVC.”
Naperville Central (5-5, 2-1) swept the season series with WW South last year, but the Tigers clearly look like the class of the DVC at this point.
WW South never trailed, scoring the game’s first 6 points. Naperville Central kept within striking distance early and trailed only 19-16 midway through the second quarter after the second of Jill D’Amico’s five 3-pointers. But a 9-0 WW South run capped by a Gassensmith 3-pointer made it 32-21 at half. The Tigers started the second half with a 12-0 run punctuated by a Sierra Bisso 3 and two Maggie Dansdill free throws, and the rout was on.
“Every time we go into a quarter we look at it like the score’s 0-0,” Gassensmith said.
It helps having a talented sophomore point guard like Meghan Waldron, who was all over the court with 18 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals.
“Waldron is the most improved player I’ve seen this season — and it’s not even close,” said Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum.
WW South’s unselfish play is infectious, and it starts with Waldron. Few teams move the ball as well as the Tigers.
“Meghan is the most unselfish player I’ve ever seen that still scores a lot,” WW South coach Rob Kroehnke said. “It’s a special group of kids when you can throw nine kids out there, you know exactly what you’re going to get and they are not worried about anything but the team.”
D’Amico scored 20 points for Naperville Central, but Emma Donahue was held to 7 and attempted just 5 shots. The Redhawks went scoreless for nearly the first half of both the first and third quarters, the kind of scoring droughts that have plagued them at times this season. WW South switched from a man-to-man defense to zone trap midway through the second quarter, which further contributed to the Redhawks’ funk.
“When they went to that zone, we didn’t have (Jamie) Cuny because of three fouls,” Nussbaum said, “so they could be aggressive and not pay for it because we were short a shooter. It got away from us a little there. We have to be more patient and get it to Emma, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t make shots.”
Allie Zappia added 8 points and Dansdill 8 rebounds for WW South, whose superior quickness showed up on the glass with 22 offensive rebounds to the bigger Redhawks’ 2. Rebounding was a point of emphasis after last year’s 54-52 loss in Wheaton.
“There’s no doubt that our quickness helps as far as getting after the ball,” Kroehnke said.
“This win meant a lot,” Waldron said, “Last year, losing to them twice, it hurt.”