Naperville Central defeats Waubonsie Valley
The goal Thursday night for Naperville Central was to cap off a busy week and pick up a road DuPage Valley Conference win in the process.
Mission accomplished.
The Redhawks girls basketball team may have not had its best shooting night, but it still managed to blitz host Waubonsie Valley with a 24-4 first half en route to a 51-22 victory in Aurora.
Hannah Swarm had 12 points and 4 steals in the first half on her way to game-high totals of 16 points and 5 steals against a young Warriors squad that dropped to 2-7 on the year and 0-4 in conference. But the Redhawks also received a big boost from the rebounding of senior Katie McBain and freshman Lucy Schmid.
"I thought Katie McBain played great," Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum said after his team improved to 6-3, 3-1. "Lucy Schmid and Katie are working pretty well together. I'm pretty pleased with the way they're going. They pass each other the ball and they had a ton of rebounds tonight."
McBain, a 5-foot-10 forward, had 12 boards on the night to go along with 9 points and a pair of steals. The 6-2 Schmid had 7 points and 13 rebounds.
"Katie and Lucy played so well on the boards," said Swarm, who scored 7 of the Redhawks 8 points in the second quarter. "We still need to work as a team having all five boxing out but I'm happy with how we rebounded tonight."
Swarm also was happy with her team's fast start. The Redhawks held Waubonsie Valley without a field in the first quarter while jumping ahead 16-1.
"We definitely wanted to come out, have a fast start and put a lot of pressure on them," she said. "And we really like pushing the ball in transition and getting a lot of points off that. I think that worked out that we were so aggressive early on tonight."
The Warriors got a spark in the third quarter when freshman guard Dajour Miles tallied all 7 of her team-high points as the home team put up 15 points after scoring just four in the first half. But coach David Owles wished his team had played with the same fire in the first half.
"We're too inconsistent with our effort," Owles said. "We'll play great with our effort … we were really happy with our effort start to finish Tuesday night at Neuqua, and we were up for the game. Then this one we came out flat. In the third quarter we played hard, but it's inconsistent and the girls know it and the coaches know it. We're very young and I think with some of that inexperience we're subject to highs and lows."
Freshman Iwiyisi Osaghae had 10 rebounds for Waubonsie, including 6 on the offensive end, while Gina Palasz added 5 rebounds.
Nussbaum was just happy to pick up a victory after his team's fourth game in just over a week.
"We've had four games in eight days and that's pretty tough," he said. "So a win's a win and we wanted to stay close to the top (in conference) and that's what we did. That's what we accomplished here."