Naperville Central can't miss in DVC victory over WW South

Against a matchup zone, Claire Fleming and the Naperville Central Redhawks came out in a zone.

The Redhawks hit their first six 3-pointers en route to a 21-point halftime lead, then held off Wheaton Warrenville South 47-37 on Thursday in Wheaton.

Fleming, who had a game-high 20 points, made all five of her 3-point attempts in the first half. Knocked down by a defender on a corner try, Fleming swished it anyway and made the free throw for a four-point play and 24-8 lead.

"You kind of stop thinking when you're going like that," Fleming said. "You stop thinking and just do what you have to do. When a team's on a roll it's easy to get your momentum going. I have my nights."

Emma Ondik made both of her 3-point tries and Catherine Tanck had 8 first-half points. Naperville Central shot a blistering 75 percent from the field in the first half.

"The first half offensively is probably the best half we've had all year," Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum said. "Our girls are just really unselfish right now and the ball movement is good. There are no egos."

The Redhawks (11-0, 3-0 DuPage Valley Conference), off to their best start since 2002-03, had won seven of their first 10 games by 6 points or fewer. A narrow win over Neuqua Valley on Monday might have paid dividends Thursday.

Neuqua also zoned the Redhawks. Two full days of practice allowed them to work out the kinks.

"The key to breaking a zone is ball movement," Fleming said. "We had their defense running back and forth."

Naperville Central led 36-15 at half. The Redhawks' total was 3 points fewer than the most WW South had allowed in a full game during a six-game win streak.

"We didn't do anything different in the third quarter," WW South coach Rob Kroehnke said, "and they scored 5 points. They just didn't hit as many shots. They brought their A++ game tonight, and that's what happens."

WW South (6-2, 2-1) didn't roll over after the early barrage. Down 19 after three quarters, the Tigers pulled within 13 twice on a Heidi Ansiel score with 3:04 left and a Katie Ottolin jumper with just more than a minute left.

WW South forced 20 Redhawks turnovers. Ottolin helped key the comeback, finishing with 10 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals.

"We don't give up in a game," Ottolin said, "no matter how low or how high we are."

Ansiel added 9 points for WW South. Tanck had 11 points and 8 rebounds, and Emma Donahue 8 points and 8 rebounds for Naperville Central.