Fourth-quarter rally sends Wheaton North past West Aurora
Wheaton North's girls basketball players thought they were good enough to play in a later time slot.
They earned that opportunity with Monday afternoon's 60-51 victory against West Aurora.
"That means we're going to play at prime time," Falcons sophomore Matti Zander said with a smile.
The Falcons will meet No. 1 seed Glenbrook South at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Bill Neibch Falcon Holiday Classic quarterfinals at Wheaton North.
"We'll play whoever right now," said Falcons coach Dave Eaton, whose team has won four of its last five games. "We just want to make sure that we have that mindset of we're going to show up and play a good, aggressive style of defense and tap the offense and see what happens."
Monday's win didn't come easy. No. 8 seed West Aurora (6-4) made sure of that.
Unseeded Wheaton North (5-6) took an 18-7 lead to start the second quarter on freshman Nikki Baird's steal and layup, but it didn't last long. West Aurora cut it to 1 later in the period and trailed only 25-22 at halftime.
"It just wasn't our game," West Aurora coach Connie Siljendahl said. "A couple of shots didn't fall when we needed them to fall and a couple of fouls didn't go our way. I thought we played some really good defense. I thought we got lost at times on defense."
The third quarter was all West Aurora, which scored the first 12 points of the period to take its biggest lead of the game. The Blackhawks led 38-33 going to the fourth quarter.
"We didn't play real well in the third quarter, and I don't think, to be honest, it could have happened at a better time," Eaton said. "We came back in the huddle and our kids, there was a different look in their eyes, and I think it showed in the fourth quarter. We played much better defensively."
The Falcons outscored West Aurora 27-13 in the final eight minutes, with sophomore Hannah Swider giving them a 52-47 lead with 2:11 left on a pair of free throws.
"It was tough, but we fought back," said Zander, who scored 8 points and grabbed 4 rebounds off the bench.
Free throws were the key to the Falcons keeping the lead down the stretch. They made 13 of 15 in the fourth quarter, 19 of 26 for the game.
Falcons senior Emmy Gryna scored 19 points, making four 3-pointers. Swider added 16 points and Baird scored 14 with 9 rebounds.
Senior SaMya Hunt came off the bench to score 14 points for the Blackhawks, her best output of the season. Senior Ashley Williams scored 12 and grabbed 8 rebounds.
"She just had a very nice game," Siljendahl said. "She rebounded, she played good defense, she was an offensive threat. She did a nice job."
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