Warriors put brakes on skid

Willowbrook and St. Charles East both had losing streaks on the brain.

By the end of Wednesday night's boys basketball game in Villa Park, the host Warriors already were thinking about starting a winning streak.

Willowbrook's dominant second half kept the visiting Saints winless with a 58-47 nonconference decision.

"That was about as hard as I've seen a team of ours play in the last three years," said Warriors coach Tim Lavorato, whose team snapped a mild two-game losing streak. "They played extremely hard, too. I just thought it was a real good basketball game."

Willowbrook (5-2) trudged through the first half with three starters - Kyler Market, Matt Redmer and Ken Schmidt - on the bench with foul trouble. A 10-point lead dissolved into a 20-18 game at halftime as the Saints (0-8) forced 6 turnovers and closed the half on a 10-2 run.

St. Charles East, which has been allowing 70 points per game, finished perhaps its best defensive half of the season, but in the third quarter it came crashing down.

"We've been playing a lot of good teams, and all we've been working on is defense," said Saints coach Brian Clodi. "Second half, we gave up 38 points and had 10 turnovers. That's the difference."

Especially the way the Saints were shooting from the perimeter. They hit only 1 of 19 3-point shots and kept another negative streak alive - for the eighth straight time Clodi said his team had a lower shooting percentage than the opposition.

"We felt they were good shots, but you can't win when you go 1 of 19 on good looks," Clodi said.

Six-foot-seven Kevin Senechalle, who poured in a game-high 19 points, scored twice in the opening minutes of the third quarter to give the Saints a brief 22-21 lead. Willowbrook, though, seized command with a 10-0 run.

Starting the fourth quarter with a 9-2 run, the Warriors built a 48-34 advantage and kept the lead above double digits the rest of the way.

Four players scored in double figures for the Warriors. Graham Olatunji had 14 points, Phillip Reid had 13 and Market pitched in 10 points.

Eric Miller led a fiery bench effort from the Warriors by hitting a pair of 3-pointers and scoring 10 points.

"We had a lot of energy out there," Olatunji said. "We've been practicing hard, so we had to take it out on the other team."