Girls basketball: Waubonsie Valley scores 81 vs. Libertyville, improves to 8-0
With four starters back from a Class 4A state finalist, Waubonsie Valley was expected to be one of the state's top girls basketball teams again.
After the Class 4A state's No. 9 ranked Warriors’ 81-62 triumph over Libertyville on Saturday night at the Dave Yates Chicagoland Showcase, Wildcats coach Greg Pedersen will hardly deny that.
"They shot the ball unlike anyone we've played against in a long, long time," Pedersen said. "They have five shooting guards, who if you leave open with any space at all, will knock it down. I feel like they shot 50% at the 3-point line. I don't know if they did, but it felt like it."
Eighth-year Warriors coach Brett Love felt like his team was ready for the challenge.
"This was one of the games we had on our schedule because we wanted to be tested," Love said. “We thought they were a great team. We came out and played strong. We shot well, we made some good decisions, and we played tough defense. Credit to our girls for working hard, digging deep and taking care of business."
Winning has been its business so far as Waubonsie Valley won for the eighth straight time without loss, coming off a 32-5 season nine months ago.
"We were just really trying to talk on defense, have high energy, hit our shots and move a lot on offense," said junior guard Danyella Mporokoso, who used an array of moves to the basket for a game-high 24 points with two 3-pointers. "We just were listening to the game plan, really hustling and playing with high energy."
The Warriors gained their biggest lead in the first quarter at 12-6, thanks to Mporokoso's 6-footer followed by her 10-foot fadeaway with 2:49 left.
Libertyville (5-3) got back to within 12-11 with a 3-pointer from Ella Pawelczyk and a 16-footer by Elinor Lindal.
Sophomore Maya Pereda's 3-pointer pushed the Warriors' lead to 17-13 before Sophia Cesnovar's 40-foot buzzer beater got the Wildcats back to within 17-16 after one quarter.
Sophia Swanson raced through the lane for a layup to give Libertyville its only lead of the game at 20-19 with 5:36 left in the first half.
Waubonsie Valley answered with a 10-0 run that including a 3-pointer from Pereda and back-to-back driving layups by senior Lily Newton (17 points) made it 30-20.
"Danyella always steps up for us," Love said. " She did a good job today controlling the ball and handling the pressure. Lily (Newton) did a great job on the defense. Arianna (Garcia-Evans, a junior, who scored 21 points) really guarded No. 3 (Lily Fisher) well and did a good job finishing at the basket and making smart decisions. And (junior) Maya Cobb (11 points) did a nice job knocking down open shots."
Cesnovar hit a nice off-balance 14-footer in the lane to cut the lead to 30-26 and Swanson's 3-pointer got the Wildcats to within 37-29 at the break.
WV kept the pressure on in the second half, starting out with Pereda's 3-pointer and a steal and layup by Cobb for a 42-29 lead.
Libertyville, led by Lindal (19 points), Swanson (14, 2 three-pointers), Cesnovar (13) and Fisher (10), never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
"I thought we hung in there well," said Pedersen, whose team's only other losses are to Hersey and Maine South. "This was a good experience for us and gets us primed for our conference schedule. I thought Sophia Cesnovar played with a lot of heart and Caitlyn Griffith is defending so well coming off the bench. The score probably won't reflect what the game meant to us. If we play like this, we'll be OK."