West Chicago breaks through, beats Naperville North
January hasn’t been kind to West Chicago. It’s been downright mean to Naperville North.
Only West Chicago changed its fortunes, taking a 57-49 girls basketball decision at West Chicago on Thursday night.
“We needed it,” said West Chicago coach Kim Wallner, whose team had lost four of its previous five games. “We needed it. We haven’t been playing good basketball in the month of January after coming off that Christmas victory (winning the Oswego East Winter Classic on Dec. 30).”
The loss was the sixth straight for Naperville North, frustrated since reaching the Benet/Naperville North Holiday Tournament championship game in December.
“I think we played a great first half, but I feel like in the second half we were on our heels,” Huskies coach Jacquie Discipio said. “We knew they were going to make a wave, we were going to have to ride the wave, but we weren’t able to maintain composure and finish at the end. We got in foul trouble, we missed a lot of shots and that’ll do it.”
Trailing by 8 points in the third quarter, the Wildcats fought back to take their first lead of the game at 36-34 on Brenna MacDonald’s three-point play with 1:35 left in the period.
Free throws made the difference in the fourth quarter, with the Wildcats (12-9, 5-5 DuPage Valley Conference) making 13 of 15 at the line in the period, including Claire Monroe’s 8-of-8 shooting. For the game they made 23 of 29.
“We love to shoot,” said senior guard Allie Tapanes, who knocked down a pair herself in the final quarter. “Our free-throw percentage is really high.”
But the play that sealed West Chicago’s victory came with 1:08 to play. Coming out of a timeout and inbounding the ball at the far end of the court, West Chicago junior Amanda Gosbeth threw a perfect baseball pass to an unguarded Tapanes streaking toward the basket for an easy layup and a 51-47 lead.
“Amanda has a good arm,” Tapanes said. “We knew she could throw it, and we knew they were playing up on us and the back lane was wide open, so we went for it.
“It boosted our confidence completely, gave us a little space to breathe.”
“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Discipio added. “And then we were on our heels and our girls were flustered and the game was over.”
Gosbeth is the catcher on the Wildcats softball team. She was Wallner’s only choice to make that pass.
“She has a rifle,” Wallner said.
Monroe finished with 19 points, Laura Panicali had 14 plus 9 rebounds, and Tapanes scored 10 points. Gosbeth grabbed 7 rebounds coming off the bench.
Zoe Swift led Naperville North (10-12, 2-8) with 18 points, and freshman Kayla Sharples added 11 points and 8 rebounds.