WW South defeats Wheaton North again

Give the Wheaton Warrenville South girls basketball team an inch and they’ll take a mile, or rather a regional title.

The Tigers, seeded third in the Class 4A Hoffman Estates sectional, faced sixth-seeded Wheaton North, for the second time in a week Thursday night in the Addison Trail regional final.

The Falcons (13-16) came out ready to meet whatever WW South (27-3) had for them. But Wheaton North couldn’t prevent the Tigers from putting some space between them and the Falcons early on, and as teams have found out all season, that usually entails WW South looking at its opponent in the rearview mirror on the way to victory.

Wheaton North led 15-11 after the first quarter, but the Tigers outscored the Falcons 34-7 over the next two quarters en route to a 51-37 win and a spot in the Hoffman Estates sectional semifinals.

The Tigers face Geneva, a 55-45 winner over Elk Grove, at 8:10 p.m. Monday.

WW South will be looking to even the score against Geneva. The Vikings beat the Tigers 65-58 on Dec. 17 at the Naperville North/Benet Holiday Tournament.

“The kids don’t want to stop playing. They just want an opportunity to play and we want to make the most of any opportunity,” said Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke.

The Falcons’ Mandy Traversa hit 3-of-4 3-point attempts in the first eight minutes and two free throws for 8 points and was crucial to Wheaton North leading after the opening quarter. She was the team-high scorer with 13 points.

The Falcons stayed with the Tigers for just more tahn half of the second quarter. Then WW South made its move. Meghan Waldron scored off a turnover, Maggie Dansdill fed Olivia Linebarger for a bucket. Then Sierra Bisso sank her first of three 3-pointers to put her team up 25-18 at intermission and it wasn’t that close again.

“Wheaton North is a great team and great to play. We know at the end of the day what we need to do. It’s fun,” Bisso said.

The Falcons were limited to 1-of-6 shooting from the field during that period while the Tigers were a spicy 6 of 12.

“We get a lead and Coach always stresses to play great defense. We want to keep the momentum going,” Waldron said.

The two teams had met exactly one week before in the regular-season finale at Wheaton North with WW South winning 45-19 to sweep the regular-season series.

“Wheaton North was too good a team to play like they did then. They took a reallly good shot at us (tonight) in the first half, and in the second half we were outstanding,” Kroehnke said.

WW South raised the temperature in the third quarter, shooting 9 of 15 while its defense limited the Falcons’ opportunities and Wheaton North just shot 1 of 9.

“When we played well, we had executed defensively,” said Wheaton North coach Dave Eaton.

Other top scorers from both teams included the Falcons’ Maddie Baillie with 11 points including a 7-of-7 showing from the free-throw line. Kasey Gassensmith 9 points for WW South.

For the Falcons it was a season of growing as a team, earning a strong seed in a sectional.

“It was a very good season. We had 11 freshmen and sophomores up. A lot of kids didn’t have experience and got playing time. The sun is shining on next year,” Eaton said.