Wheaton North tucks in a winner

Wheaton North's Maddie Baillie found a practical incentive for winning Monday.

"We play at 7:30 tomorrow night now, which is nice," the Falcons senior said. "We get to sleep in."

Baillie was a big reason why, with 19 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds as tournament host Wheaton North pulled away to beat No. 8 seed St. Charles East 57-46 in first-round action at the Bill Neibch Falcon Holiday Classic.

The Falcons (6-6), which lost four starters from last year, started their season 0-3 but now have won four straight heading into tonight's matchup with top seed Waubonsie Valley.

"Graduating those kids hurt," Falcons coach Dave Eaton said, "but these kids are starting to figure out how to play those key positions. That experience is starting to show. We're getting better and the kids are working hard."

"We've had a lot of practices since our last game," Baillie said, "so we're doing pretty well on the offensive end. We're not turning the ball over as much as we did earlier in the season."

In a well-played first half on both sides, St. Charles East (6-7) closed with a 9-0 run to take a 29-28 lead into the break. The two teams traded the lead five times in the third quarter, until a Baillie driving layup with 37 seconds left gave Wheaton North the lead for good at 41-39.

A Baillie putback basket started the fourth quarter, and at the other end St. Charles East went scoreless for the first 5:14. Three-pointers by Mandy Traversa, who scored 13 points, and Baillie capped the 16-0 run and made it a 55-39 bulge. Wheaton North shot 44 percent for the game with eight 3s.

"We did a good job scoring the basketball," Eaton said. "I don't think we did a great job of executing what we want to do, but the kids did a good job of scoring the basketball."

St. Charles East didn't aid its cause with 0-for-8 shooting from the free-throw line in the second half. Paige Jordan scored 16 points for the Saints, but 13 of that total came in the first half. Freshman Kyra Washington added 10 points and 11 rebounds.

"That fourth quarter, we did not shoot well," Saints coach Lori Drumtra said, "and the more we got down I think we pressed a little too much. I thought we played very well up to that point. Give credit to Wheaton North for stepping up their defense."

"We switched things up in the fourth quarter," Eaton said, "and I thought maybe that threw them off a little bit. We didn't execute it real well, it's the first time we ever ran that (box-and-one) defense, but it was OK."

Chrissy Baird added 14 points and 10 rebounds for Wheaton North, which last year advanced to the tournament semifinals before losing to eventual champion Hersey in double overtime.

"It was nice for the kids to come out and play well," Eaton said. "We talked about this being our tournament, and that they got a lot to defend. It will be a challenge against Waubonsie, but getting that first win was important."