Elk Grove can't derail Waubonsie

Its bus was delayed by snow one night.

Tuesday Waubonsie Valley was just a plain slow starter.

Bottom line? The Warriors are still on schedule at Wheaton North.

Top-seeded Waubonsie shook off another sluggish start to beat No. 8 Elk Grove 38-30 and advance to the semifinals of the Bill Neibch Falcon Holiday Classic.

Waubonsie (12-1) plays Glenbrook South at 7:30 p.m. today.

“A win's a win, but we are starting off slow every game,” Waubonsie's Becky Williford said. “Before the game we talked about playing consistently every time. That's what we need to do because if we don't a win can get away from us very easily.”

Trailing 25-18 with 4:33 left in the third quarter after a Michelle Calmeyn jumper for Elk Grove, Waubonsie finally turned the tide.

A Tanysha Gardner-Walls driving layup and Williford score in transition touched off a 12-0 run spanning the end of the third quarter and first minute of the fourth. Tia Brooks' two free throws with 2.8 seconds left in the third gave Waubonsie a 26-25 lead, its first since 3-2 in the game's early going.

“The first half we were all out of sorts offensively. Give Elk Grove credit,” Waubonsie coach Kim Connell said. “As poorly as we had played we were only down by 6 at half. We just had to chip away.”

A Walls stickback basket and Williford score off an Elk Grove turnover made it 30-25, as the Warriors kicked their fastbreak game into gear.

“I told them it's about getting cheap baskets in transition,” Connell said. “That's what kind of keeps us in games sometimes.”

A pair of Calmeyn free throws pulled Elk Grove (8-7) within 33-30 with 4:37 left, but the Grenadiers went scoreless the rest of the way. Waubonsie won with its lowest point total of the year, only the third time the Warriors have been held under 50 points.

“Our kids executed our defensive game plan to a tee,” Elk Grove coach Ryan Kirkorsky said. “We always tell our kids if we can hold a team under 40 we should win, but obviously we couldn't put the ball in the basket.”

Elk Grove managed just 9 points in the second half.

“We placed ourself in helpside more because they were back-dooring us if we played tightly,” Williford said. “Once their shooters got the ball we closed out well which didn't allow them time to get their shot off.”

Williford had 11 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, Brooks and Gardner-Walls each 9 points for Waubonsie. Williford said Elk Grove's man-to-man defense was a wrinkle the Warriors had trouble adapting to.

“This is the first time we've seen a man defense in a while,” Williford said. “It took us a while to adjust. We're used to seeing everybody play zone. Plus Elk Grove is a very offensively disciplined team.”

Calmeyn scored 10 points and sophomore Diamond Boyd 7 points and 9 rebounds for Elk Grove. Boyd also held 6-foot-3 Waubonsie center Rachael Ross, averaging 16.5 points over the Warriors' last four games, to just 2 points.

“We were talking about whether we were going to double (Ross),” Kirkorsky said. “But Diamond has long arms, and we thought we'll see if Diamond can bother her. Diamond was tremendous on her.”