Naperville Central squeaks by Wheaton North
Naperville Central just wanted to change its karma against Wheaton North.
For five years Wheaton North won the first game the two DuPage Valley Conference girls basketball teams played each year, with Naperville Central tying the season series later.
This year the Redhawks drew first blood.
Naperville Central squeaked out a 53-48 victory Saturday afternoon in Naperville to keep stay close to league leader Wheaton Warrenville South.
“We always have a great battle with them,” Redhawks senior center Emma Donahue said. “They’re a very aggressive team, and they like to bring the pressure in the gym and you just feel the whole atmosphere, but overall I felt we handled it well. We were a little concerned about our younger players adapting to their high-energy noise level. But I was really pleased with how we handled it, and overall I felt both teams played a really strong game.”
“A lot of it is (the Falcons) bring a level of intensity to the game that a lot of teams don’t bring,” Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum said. “I thought we handled it today as well as we’ve ever handled it from them.”
The teams went to halftime tied at 25 after 16 minutes that saw 7 ties and 7 lead changes, with neither team leading by more than 3. The Falcons (7-9, 3-3) opened the second half by taking a 4-point lead, but Donahue tied the game again at 31 with 3:35 left, and the Redhawks (10-7, 4-1) finished the third quarter with a 4-point lead of their own.
A Jaquala Hillman basket tied the game again at 43 with 5:18 left in the fourth quarter, but the Redhawks scored the next seven points, all at the free-throw line. The Falcons never got closer than three points the rest of the game.
The Redhawks finished 23 of 30 at the free-throw line.
“I thought their kids did a pretty good job of getting the ball inside and doing what they wanted to do,” Falcons coach Dave Eaton said. “We wanted to go at some of their bigger kids and get them in foul trouble and I thought we did that early, but in the second half we didn’t do it as well. We turned the ball over a little too much and needed to do a little bit better job. Not our best game tonight.”
The Falcons also struggled with their shooting, making just 15 of 51 shots.
“We didn’t get a lot to fall,” Eaton said. “We had a lot of balls right there on the rim and nothing fell. We have to bounce back here and get ready, but the ball didn’t fall.”
Donahue led both teams with 18 points, including a perfect 8 of 8 at the free-throw line, adding 6 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Redhawks point guard Jill D’Amico scored 14 of her 16 points in the second half.
“Jill, she brings the fire,” Donahue said. “She finds the openings, and I don’t know how she does it, but she gets the foul, and even if you think that’s going to be a travel, nope, she draws the foul. She’s just a great player that keeps working and never gives up on it. She pushes us.”
Sophomore Chrissy Baird’s 13 points led Wheaton North, and she also had 9 rebounds. The Falcons’ Mandy Traversa added a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and senior Maddie Baillie scored 9 points, all in the first half.
“I thought Shannon Ryan did a real nice job for us on Baillie in the second half,” Nussbaum said of his sophomore guard. “Baillie, you saw some of the things she did in the first half, and I thought we were all over her. And she was making shots. We changed up what we were doing a little bit and Shannon responded very well to the challenge.”