Waubonsie Valley races past Naperville North, keeps DVC lead
If it wasn’t obvious before, it should be by now: The DuPage Valley Conference runs through Waubonsie Valley.
Just to make sure that held true, the Warriors played aggressively from the moment their game against Naperville North tipped off Thursday.
The result was a familiar one to followers of the conference – a 56-42 Warriors victory.
Not only did Waubonsie Valley (19-1, 5-0) shoot the 3-pointer early and often, but it yielded results and with great balance. Four different Warriors hit six shots from long range in the first quarter, quickly leaving the Huskies (8-11, 1-4) in the dust with a 25-4 lead at the end of that quarter.
In fact, all seven Warriors who scored finished the game with at least one 3.
"That's who we are,” said Warriors coach Brett Love. “That's our game. We like to shoot because we practice it a lot, and we do have a lot of shooters. It's good when we have a good night of shooting, but our game plan was to get the ball in the middle and attack the baseline. (Naperville North) allowed us to shoot from outside, so we took it."
Waubonsie Valley ultimately made 12 shots from downtown. Hannah Laub scored 12 of her 14 points on four 3s, and Maya Cobb made three 3s en route to a game-high 19 points on eight field goals. Cobb was the only player on either team to score in every quarter.
“I just was open a lot,” Cobb said. “I called for the ball a lot. I think my teammates knew that I was in my rhythm, so they continued to find me.”
Despite falling into an unrecoverable hole early, the Huskies never lost focus and were cheered on by their bench from beginning to end like they were a softball team. It eventually paid off in the form of a strong finish as they outscored the Warriors in the fourth quarter, 21-10. In that quarter alone, the Huskies matched the Warriors’ scoring for the entire second half.
“I think we definitely got comfortable,” Love said. “We saw the lead. I think they felt it was pretty easy to get there, and they felt good about their shots and things like that. We kind of dropped off on defense. Not to take anything away from Naperville North. They got some talented players. But we did become a little bit undisciplined.”
Natalie Frempong led Naperville North with 14 points, 12 of which came in the second half. Kendall Johnson scored all 12 of her points after halftime, including nine in the fourth quarter.