Waubonsie Valley, South Elgin pull out close wins
One coach talked about experience, while the other talked about energy.
But in both cases Saturday night, they were talking about the edge Waubonsie Valley had down the stretch in its tight Upstate Eight Conference battle with visiting East Aurora.
It was experience and energy -- and some clutch free-throw shooting -- that enabled the Warriors to pull out a 57-52 win despite trailing at the end of each of the first three quarters.
East Aurora (14-9, 3-5) was looking to hand the hosts their first UEC loss and to prevent Waubonsie Valley (20-4, 8-0) from reaching the 20-win plateau.
After William Brown busted out for 16 first-half points and then the Tomcats built a 37-31 lead with 3 minutes left in the third quarter, the Warriors were in jeopardy of losing both their perfect league mark and sole possession of first place.
But senior guards Kevin VandenBerg, Justin Peaster and Josh Daniels all finished strong, and senior forward Kyle Obendorf was strong all night on the boards.
After pulling within 41-40 after three quarters, the Warriors took an early lead in the fourth on a short jumper by VandenBerg and a Peaster put-back. The two then went on to make 9 of 10 foul shots in the fourth quarter as Waubonsie finished off its visitors.
"East played very well tonight and we were playing catch-up most of the evening," said Waubonsie coach Steve Weemer. "I thought Justin was key tonight. His energy in the fourth quarter was big."
Daniels, meanwhile, kept Waubonsie in the game in the first half with 11 of his team-leading 16 points. In the second half, he focused more on defense and helped blank Brown, who didn't play in the teams' nonconference game earlier this season. East's top scorer went 0-for-2 in the second half before fouling out with 5:24 left.
"We just stayed mentally tough. We knew we had to stay tough on defense," Daniels said. "All year we've been a second-half team."
Tomcats coach Wendell Jeffries liked his team's effort on Saturday. He felt the biggest key, however, came down to the Warriors' experience.
"We played well," he said. "They just finished the game out better than we did. They start four seniors and six of their top seven are seniors while we play one. They know how to finish off games and we're still learning."
Daniels, Peaster and VandenBerg each scored in double figures and combined to score 40 points, while Obendorf had 9 points and 12 rebounds. Jelani Johnson added 8 points and 7 boards as the Warriors' starters accounted for all 57 of their points on Saturday.
"We had no room to lose," said Peaster, who scored 7 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter. "At the end we just pulled it out."
Brown led East Aurora with 16 points, all on 7-for-9 shooting in the first half. Jamar Shepard and Tramell Weathersby and each added 10 points, but Weathersby was one of three Tomcats to foul out in a fourth quarter in which Waubonsie outscored the visitors 17-11, thanks in large part to 11-for-13 shooting from the foul line.
South Elgin 48, DeKalb 47: How did South Elgin overcome a 13-point deficit Saturday night? Pretty much in the usual ways: the Storm stepped up its pressure defense, found lanes to drive to the basket, crashed the boards harder, and got the opponent in foul trouble. South Elgin did those things well enough to pull out a 48-47 nonconference victory against DeKalb at Chuck Dayton Gymnasium.
The Storm (11-11) railed 19-6 late in the second quarter and appeared on the verge of getting blown out. But with 6-foot-10 Jordan Threloff on the bench with 2 fouls, the Storm scored the last 5 points of the first half. Then, with Adam Hodge leading the way, South Elgin used runs of 11-2 and 14-2 to take over the lead.
Hodge had 17 points and 8 rebounds, including some clutch free throws down the stretch. Joshua Glenn added 8 points. South Elgin's own big man, 6-9 Daniel Lopez, began to assert himself after the break as well. He scored all 7 of his points in the second half and helped neutralize Threloff.
"((The difference was ) just our pressure with our trapping, guarding the ball better, and doing a better job with (De Kalb guard Jon Umoren) out there," said South Elgin coach Chaz Taft. "He was doing too much creating, getting guys the ball. That's what the first half was. It was him feeding other players, so (the difference) was concentrating on making sure we concentrated on make sure they're stopping the ball and getting deflections."
"They had to come at us one way," said Hodge. "If they take away our size, then we knock down the shot outside, attack with our quicker guards. Once I was able to utilize the middle, that opened up a lot of open shots for our 3-point shooters and for Lopez."
South Elgin led by as many as 7 after its second big run. But the Storm missed 8 of 14 fourth-quarter free throws to let DeKalb climb back into it.
With South Elgin leading 47-45, Hodge missed 2 free throws, but Glenn corralled the rebound. Hodge got fouled again and made 1. Umoren, who led the Barbs with 15 points, had 2 shots to tie, but missed both. After the second miss, the Storm had the ball out of bounds with less than a second left. DeKalb's Tyler Smith stole the inbounds pass and laid it in at the buzzer, but it wasn't enough.
Threloff finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks, but had just 3 points in the second half while sitting for long periods with foul trouble.
Stephen Carter scored 6 points off the bench for South Elgin.
-- Allen Oshinski
Warren 53, Conant 49:ŒAs Warren's boys basketball team went to the bench after the third quarter Saturday night, confidence was emanating from the players.
Despite the fact the Blue Devils were trailing by 7 points and had just watched Conant's Tom Sotos drain a turnaround 3-pointer at the buzzer, Warren, led by standout junior Brandon Paul, was ready to fight back.
"We just kept playing," Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. "Early in the year we would have let something like (Sotos' shot) bother us. These guys hung tough."
Anchored by a dazzling fourth-quarter performance from Paul, the Blue Devils, who had trailed for nearly the game's entirety, battled back to knock off Conant 53-49 in nonconference action Saturday night in Hoffman Estates.
"This was a really big win," said Paul, who had 26 points and 4 rebounds. "We came in knowing this was going to be a hard game, but we just wanted to come out with the win."
Just a day earlier, Conant (18-5) had clinched its second consecutive Mid-Suburban West title with a 51-42 victory over Hoffman Estates. While one might think perhaps the Cougars were still reveling in their conference title, coach Tom McCormack dismissed this notion.
"We tried to put (the division title) out of our mind, McCormack said after his team's 8-game winning streak ended. "Warren is a pretty good team. They made some shots and we didn't."
While Warren (13-9) was the first to score, it would be the Cougars who controlled the tempo of the game early. By limiting the Devils' fast break opportunities and distributing the ball extremely well, Conant went into the break with a 32-25 lead.
The Cougars built their first-half lead behind the solid shooting performances from their backcourt combo of junior Tony Rizzo (12 points) and Sotos (10 points, 3 rebounds).
Paul did not back down from the fourth-quarter challenge.
The 6-foot-3 junior, who has already verbally committed to play for Bruce Weber's Illini in 2010, knocked down three clutch 3-pointers to bring his team back into contention.
"Brandon Paul hit some great shots," Ramsey said. "He was outstanding tonight the way he hit those 3s in the fourth."
With 2:10 left in the game, and trailing by a basket, senior forward Jeff Kemp's lay-up off a miss tied it at 47-47.
Thirty seconds later, junior guard David Duncan knocked down a pair of free throws to give Warren the lead with 1:30 left in regulation and they would never look back.
Fittingly, it would be none other than Paul who blocked a last-ditch effort by Conant's Sotos, to wrap up the victory.
"I knew I had to do something to help our team," Paul said with a smile. "This really builds our confidence and helps us know that we can beat good teams."
-- Dan Hyman
Women's basketball
Illinois Wesleyan 68, Wheaton 59:ŒClaire Sheehan (St. Charles East) scored 23 points on 7-of-14 shooting as the Titans defeated the Thunder in Wheaton. Crystal Dye added 16 points and Christina Solari grabbed 15 boards for the Titans (19-2, 9-1). For Wheaton (11-10, 3-7), Kathleen Fidelia scored 14 and had 4 steals.