Willowbrook defense stops Hinsdale South

Coaches teach their players to do one simple thing when a shot goes up: put a hand in the face of the shooter.

Willowbrook (3-4, 2-0) did that to perfection in the first half as the Warriors cruised to a 47-35 victory against Hinsdale South Thursday night in Villa Park.

In the first half the Hornets shot just 4 of 29 from the floor and managed to score only 15 points in the first half.

"Our defense definitely won us the game tonight," Willowbrook coach Troy Nelson said. "We played absolutely outstanding. I have never seen us contest every shot like we did in the first half."

Hinsdale South (2-6, 1-1) was able to make the game a little closer in the second half when it converted on 4 of its first 7 attempts from the field to close the gap to 29-23 midway through the third period. That is when Taylor Nelson and Angela Domin took charge for the Warriors.

On consecutive possessions Nelson and Taylor hit back-to-back 3-pointers that doubled that 6-point lead. The Hornets were never able to get inside 9 points the rest of the way.

"A lot of the girls look for us to do something when we need a little bit of offense," Taylor Nelson said. "We have been playing varsity for our entire careers, so we put that pressure on ourselves. We were challenged as a team and we stepped up and did what we needed to do to win."

Coach Nelson was not surprised that his team didn't panic when the game got a little too close for comfort.

"They are our shooters and have stepped up like that before in the past," he said of the back-to-back 3s.

Hinsdale South coach Steve Cochran talked about his team's poor shooting and the turnovers as one of the reasons of the Hornets' rough start this season.

"They beat us today because they were the better team," Cochran said. "A majority of our practices we work on fundamentals like shooting and passing. We are still a long ways away on being a good team in those aspects. We have been in a lot of ballgames this year but we need to take the next step and be able to pull some of those games out."

Nelson scored a game-high 20 points in the win with 12 of those points coming from long distance in the second half as she was 4 of 6 from behind the arc. Mary Flood chipped in with 5 points, 3 steals, 3 assists and 6 rebounds. Kelly Payne scored 10 points and grabbed 5 rebounds in the loss.