WW South tops Metea Valley on last-second basket

Jayne LaBelle emerged from Wheaton Warrenville South's postgame celebratory dogpile unscathed, a big smile still on her face.

"Just a little bit of a moshpit," the Tigers' junior forward said. "Just feeling the love."

The Tigers loved the way Tuesday's girls basketball game against Metea Valley ended. LaBelle's offensive rebound and basket as time expired gave WW South a 41-39 DuPage Valley Conference victory in Wheaton, overcoming a night on which the Tigers struggled mightily to put the ball in the basket.

"I thought it was just a really good pass honestly," LaBelle said, that smile still firmly in place. "It was a great pass from a wonderful teammate."

The Tigers (11-4, 6-0) won despite making just 7 of 23 free throws and 16 of 52 field-goal attempts, stats Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke attributed to the break following the holiday tournaments.

"You're going to have some of those," he said.

Despite the loss Metea Valley coach Cedric Williams saw the bright side.

"Our girls played hard," Williams said. "At the end of the day, we played hard, we competed against one of the best teams in the conference. We'll take this, this moral victory, but we know we have some things to work on. You can't take anything from Wheaton South. They're a good team. We're a young team, we're going to continue to battle. Those are the type of games we have to learn from."

Neither team led by more than 6 points in the game, so the Mustangs (6-9, 2-4) were looking good when junior Janiece Thomas' three-point play with 2:58 to play in the fourth quarter put Metea Valley ahead 37-33.

Senior guard Erin Madigan led the Tigers' charge despite playing with her left nostril plugged, the result of having her nose bloodied while driving to the basket in the third quarter. She scored the next 4 points, tying the game at 37 with 1:10 to go.

"We all just worked really hard together on this one," LaBelle said. "... This was a really big defensive game for us. It was just a great comeback for us."

Ashley Konkle and Bri Hall led the Mustangs with 14 points apiece. Hall added 7 steals, 6 rebounds and 2 assists.

Madigan and Johnson, who played despite a leg injury that nearly forced her to miss the game, led the Tigers (11-4, 6-0) with 11 points apiece. LaBelle finished with 8 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks.

"Jayne played great," Kroehnke said.

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