WW South defeats Wheaton North
Rob Kroehnke had one last message to his Wheaton Warrenville South Tigers before they broke huddle for the fourth quarter Saturday.
“We need eight minutes of defense,” said the Tigers coach. “Defense wins championships.”
And now the Tigers are one big step closer to that title.
WW South held host Wheaton North without a field goal for the first six minutes of the fourth quarter and went on to a 58-49 win.
“Our whole year, it’s always been about defense,” Tigers senior Annie Shain said. “We kept our composure and everybody did a great job defensively.”
WW South (18-6, 9-2) kept pace with Naperville Central atop the DuPage Valley Conference, a game ahead of Wheaton North (15-7, 8-3 and two clear of West Chicago. WW South hosts West Chicago Thursday and Wheaton North is at Naperville Central.
“I told the girls to enjoy this,” Kroehnke said, “but we haven’t won anything yet.”
In a third quarter with seven lead changes, Sydney Sharkey’s 3-pointer pushed Wheaton North ahead 40-36, but Kasey Gassensmith answered with her own 3-pointer to close the quarter.
Shain knocked down a step-back corner 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter, giving WW South the lead for good. A short jumper and two free throws by Kelly Langlas made it 48-41 with 1:50 left, finishing off a 12-1 run.
Wheaton North went without a field goal until a Fantasia Vine driving layup with 1:44 left made it 48-43.
“It was pretty much keep them out of the lane and don’t allow any penetration,” Kroehnke said. “That’s what leads to those wide-open 3s. We did a better job staying out and covering their shooters, and we kept them off the boards.”
WW South prevented any Falcons comeback hopes at the free-throw line, going 10 for 10 in the final two minutes, 19 of 20 for the game.
“We’ve been practicing free throws a lot in practice,” said Shain, who went 8 for 8. “It helped in the game.”
Gassensmith, who scored 21 points in the Tigers’ first win over Wheaton North, had 22 points and 8 rebounds Saturday. Shain added 11 and Langlas a huge 10 off the bench.
“Kasey has expanded her outside game a lot better this year, and she’s stronger with the ball,” Kroehnke said. “She’s an offensive threat for us. Meghan (Waldron) continues to improve every game, and Kelly Langlas has probably played the best out of anybody for us the last 6-7 games.”
Vine scored 14 points and Sharkey 13 for Wheaton North. The Falcons bolted out to an early 16-7 lead and hit WW South with a 6-0 run to start the second half. But they could not maintain that momentum.
“It’s got to be consistent,” Falcons coach Dave Eaton said. “First quarter, I thought we played our style of defense, we got out and pressured the basketball and they looked a little discombobulated, they didn’t get into their offense. We didn’t do that in the second, third and some of the fourth. We still haven’t put that 32 minutes together, and we gotta figure it out. By no means is (this conference) over.”