WW South responds against West Chicago
Trailing by 10 points in the first quarter, Wheaton Warrenville South knew it had to stem the tide when West Chicago came out blazing on Senior Night.
The Tigers responded swiftly, taking a lead at the end of the second quarter and never looking back en route to a 45-26 DuPage Valley Conference victory Friday night in West Chicago.
West Chicago (6-17, 0-11) got the crowd in the game early, hitting three 3-pointers and converting a three-point play to take a 14-4 lead at the 1:44 mark of the first quarter.
WW South (9-14, 5-6) followed with an 11-2 run the next nine-plus minutes, taking a 17-16 lead into halftime.
“Anytime it’s Senior Night, they’re going to come out with a lot of adrenaline, but I think our guys did a good job of handling that first wave,” WW South coach Bob Szorc said. “Then in the second half we settled in offensively.”
Junior forward Tim Zyburt led the Tigers with a game-high 17 points, 6 blocks and 5 rebounds.
“We settled down and focused on what we do best, and that’s getting the ball in the paint and playing defense,” Zyburt said. “I work everyday on being strong with the ball in the paint and finishing, and it was one of those games where I was finishing well.”
Defensively, the game may have been won by the Tigers’ ability to stymie West Chicago’s leading scorer Justin Mundt. The 6-foot-5 senior was harassed by Tigers defenders all evening.
“It was their zone,” Mundt said. “When I stepped up in the middle, they would sink in on me.”
“We turned up the pressure defensively,” WW South forward Zach Zlabis said. “We focused on him (Mundt) in practice, simulating him and knowing where he was at all times. Tim and I worked on communicating and letting everyone know where he was.”
“(Mundt) is a good one, but when he got the ball, we made his touches difficult,” Szorc said.
The game got further away from West Chicago in the second half, as they could only muster 10 points, while Zyburt and the Tigers also imposed their will offensively.
“(Zyburt) beat up on us last time down low,” Mundt said. “Against our zone he works hard down low, and once he gets the ball he has good moves. I don’t think we played bad defense on him, he just made shots and he’s a great player.”
As the game got further away from the Wildcats, they were left to wonder what could have been on Senior Night.
“They extended their zone and we didn’t do a good job of attacking the middle of it and going from there,” West Chicago guard Josh Gimre said. “Early on we were able to get some good shots and we made them. In the second half the 3-pointers didn’t fall and things didn’t bounce our way. We wanted it to be an exciting game, and if we couldn’t get the win, we at least wanted to make it as exciting as possible.”