Wheaton Warrenville South sees the difference

What a difference a new year has made in Wheaton.

The Wheaton Warrenville South Tigers won their third straight game on Tuesday, beating Glenbard North 49-42 to top their win total of the season's first two months.

"It's a definite turnaround," Tigers sophomore Hannah Credille said. "We're taking care of the ball a lot better and controlling the tempo. It's taken some time to figure out what everyone's role on the team is."

WW South (5-11, 3-2 DuPage Valley Conference) weathered a barrage of 9 Glenbard North 3-pointers to pull out the win. The ninth 3-pointer, this one courtesy of Amoni Reynolds, pulled the Panthers within 41-40 with 2:25 left.

But the Tigers held Glenbard North scoreless until Reynolds' basket with a second left, and they hit eight free throws in the game's last two minutes to preserve the lead. WW South hit 19 of 30 free throws for the game, 12 of 16 in the fourth quarter. Heidi Ansiel, Hannah Credille, Katie Ottolin and Annie Shain all made free throws down the stretch.

"We haven't been in situations like that very much this year," Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke said. "It was very good to see us close out the way we did."

Glenbard North (6-11, 3-2) trailed 29-21 midway through the third quarter before two Reynolds 3-pointers and a Reynolds jumper tied it. Down 39-31 with 5:03 left in the game, the Panthers pulled within 2 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Monica Noti.

Reynolds hit five 3-pointers for a game-high 21 points and Noti 4 for 14 points. They only missed five 3-point attempts.

"We did a good job of finding them," Glenbard North coach John Chamberlain said, "but we talked in the locker room that two players getting it done, that's pretty tough to win games unless they're going to score about 30. We have to find some other places to score."

Credille led a balanced WW South offense with 13 points. Shain added 11 and Ansiel had 7 points and 6 rebounds. The Tigers also turned the ball over just 12 times, reversing an early-season trend.

"We've made big progress," Kroehnke said. "We've played solid defense all year. We've just been struggling taking care of the ball and scoring. We're doing those things much better right now."