WW South turns tables on Naperville North

Wheaton Warrenville South came into Friday's road contest against Naperville North having lost both of its games to the Huskies earlier this season.

The Tigers were determined not to lose for a third time.

Behind 16 points from Reilly O'Toole and 15 from Jason Schuman, Wheaton Warrenville South (11-9, 5-4) used its energy on both ends of the floor en route to a 56-41 victory.

"I'm just happy with our attitude," Wheaton Warrenville South coach Mike Healy said. "The last two times we played them we almost had that look that we were waiting for something to happen. Today, we had a great attack mentality."

Naperville North (10-9, 5-3) came away with a 47-38 win on Dec. 17 and a 51-35 victory on Dec. 30. This time around Healy noted that the Tigers played a complete game both offensively and defensively.

"I thought we did a really good job offensively, but we did an even better job defensively," Healy said. "I thought we limited the number of touches they got inside, and I thought we rebounded well. It was a great effort on both ends."

The Huskies scored the first points of the night on a jumper by Matt Stacho, but that was the last lead they would hold. Wheaton Warrenville South built its halftime advantage to 26-14 thanks to three first-half 3-pointers by O'Toole.

Naperville North got no closer than an 8-point deficit the rest of the way when a Jovonn Griffin 3-pointer in the third quarter cut the Tigers lead to 31-23.

Schuman scored 8 of his 15 points and Kevin Bridges scored 6 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter to keep the game out of reach.

"Our guards did a great job pulling the defensive pressure to them and I was just wide open under the basket," Schuman said.

Schuman and his Tigers teammates were more than ready to stop the losing against their DuPage Valley Conference foes.

"We knew coming in that we had something to prove," Schuman said. "We felt both times we played them this year that they hadn't seen the best of us."

Matt LaCosse led Naperville North with a game-high 17 points.

"(Wheaton Warrenville South) came in with a lot more intensity," Naperville North coach Jeff Powers said. "We were complacent and we didn't execute both offensively and defensively. We just didn't play with enough energy.

"We've got to bounce back because we've got another big game tomorrow night against Plainfield North."