Wheaton Warrenville South survives West Chicago
Even when it’s not at its best, Wheaton Warrenville South is still a pretty good girls basketball team.
The Tigers escaped West Chicago with a 53-42 victory Saturday afternoon to keep pace with Naperville Central atop the DuPage Valley Conference.
“We know what the second half of this conference is going to be,” WW South coach Rob Kroehnke said, “and we’ve just got to be ready. If we play defense like that and give effort like that, we’ll be all right. West Chicago is West Chicago. They’re never going to quit. They’re going to battle you to the bitter end. If you’re not ready they’re going to go get you.”
“It was an outstanding effort,” West Chicago coach Kim Wallner said of her players. “We played hard. I thought we competed today, and that’s what I wanted.”
The Tigers (21-3, 10-1), coming off their first DVC loss Thursday to Naperville Central, bounced back by leading almost the entire game. Every time West Chicago (12-10, 5-6) tried to overtake the Tigers, they responded.
“We knew after a tough loss we couldn’t give it up, and with Meghan out, too, part of the game we knew we had to step it up, just work hard at it,” Tigers sophomore Maggie Dansdill said.
WW South sophomore guard Meghan Waldron played limited minutes because of illness but still led all scorers with 20 points, adding 5 rebounds.
“We didn’t let them transition a lot,” Wallner said. “Of course Waldron was hurting a little bit; I heard she was sick. When she’s off the floor that makes a difference for them, so we tried to take advantage of that a little bit. But we had a hard time stopping her. A couple of times I was looking to double-team her and she still found a way to get to the basket.”
“We had to give her short bursts,” Kroehnke said. “It would be amazing to see what she would have done if she were 100 percent. She’s gutting it out, just like everybody at this time of year. You’ve just got to get through it.”
Dansdill just missed a double-double with 12 points and 9 rebounds.
“She’s just been playing that way: rebounding, defense, and she’s starting to get untracked offensively, and that can only help us,” Kroehnke said.
Meanwhile, Wildcats senior Claire Monroe hit five 3-pointers to finish with 19 points.
“We knew we had to keep on her, but she just kept slipping by,” Dansdill said. “We just lost her for a second and she would hit them. It was just really tough on us.”
“I’m happy that she shot the ball as well as she did, handled the ball better. She needs the ball in her hands some to help us,” Wallner said of Monroe. “I thought we moved the ball a little better against that zone. They’re so much bigger than we are. Emily (Warkins) did a pretty good job in the middle distributing the ball.”
Laura Panicali added 16 points for West Chicago.