WW South bounces back, beats Wheaton North
The Wheaton Warrenville South boys basketball team was facing another crosstown battle Friday night with Wheaton North on the Tigers' home court.
Leading up to the contest, WW South was reflecting on what needed to be done after suffering its first DuKane Conference loss, 53-52, Tuesday night at St. Charles East.
While not perfect, the Tigers dominated the Falcons, 50-33.
"They responded well the last 72 hours. I liked their attitude and resilience," said WW South coach Mike Healy.
It was a case of taking a refresher course in what pushed the Tigers to first place in the conference and what has been most effective in pushing the team to a 22-3 overall record and 10-1 in league play.
"Coach was telling us to just be ourselves. And we were not ourselves on Tuesday and we got our fire tonight," said senior Braylen Meredith, who finished with a game-high 20 points.
It was a physical game throughout with battles for loose balls too numerous to count. The Tigers got enough offense to put distance between it and the Falcons in the first half with the help of a Wheaton North offense that simply could not get anything going.
The Tigers led 11-5 after the opening quarter and 19-5 at halftime.
Meredith's first of two 3-point baskets on the night put WW South up 32-8 late in the third quarter.
But the Falcons (11-15, 3-8) closed out the stanza on a 6-0 run thanks to two baskets by Jack Speers and two free throws from Jalen Crues.
The final quarter saw both squads racking up the points with Wheaton North getting a 19-18 advantage.
Yes, the Tigers cranked out more points in the second half, 31, but the team believed its best half of basketball was the first two quarters.
"There are things we could have done better (in the second half)," said WW South senior Colin Moore, who finished with eight points. "Our main focus was to get back to who we are. We didn't play like that on Tuesday. We had to get back to our roots."
Also tops on the scoring sheet for the Tigers was Luca Carbonaro with nine.
For Wheaton North, Speers and Hudson Parker were top scorers with six points each, all coming in the second half.