Tigers' tandem KO's Glenbard West
The Wheaton Warrenville South girls basketball team threw a 1-2 punch named Sarah Langlas and Taylor Nieling.
Langlas scored a game-high 16 points and Nieling tossed in 13 as the Tigers knocked down Glenbard West 45-31 in the Benet/Naperville North Holiday Tournament on Saturday night in Lisle.
Langlas gave her team a huge boost. The active senior forward scored the game's first 6 points and tallied 10 in its opening six minutes to propel WW South (9-5) to a 15-6 advantage.
"Sarah's just a great player to have," Nieling said. "She's a big spark to our team. She gets a lot of things going for us."
When Langlas slowed down, Nieling picked up her scoring. The senior guard registered 10 of her points over the final three quarters to keep the Tigers in control.
"She definitely stepped up there," Langlas said.
"Taylor's been stepping up big time," WW South coach Rob Kroehnke said. "The last two, three weeks she's been handling the ball for us. That's huge. You've got to have somebody to be able to do that."
WW South enjoyed a 23-17 lead at intermission after Nieling drained one of her three 3-pointers in the closing seconds of the first half.
The Tigers took a 33-23 advantage into the final quarter on the way to improving to 2-1 in the tourney.
Abigail Hastings led Glenbard West (7-9) in scoring with 8 points.
The Hilltoppers shot just 27 percent from the field to WW South's 45 percent.
Glenbard West coach Mike Hofland hoped his team could build on Friday's 44-34 win against St. Joseph, but that didn't happen as his club dropped to 1-2 in the tourney.
"Compared to last night, I'm very disappointed," Hofland said. "Last night we played with defensive intensity. We did a great job. We communicated. And tonight we didn't talk defensively. Girls lost sight of the basketball and they got layup after layup."
The Tigers recorded assists on 15 of their 19 field goals. Nieling led the passing attack with 6 assists.
"In the locker room we talked about playing as a team and just getting a lot more assists and everybody involved," Nieling said. "That would open a lot more shots from the inside and outside."
Kroehnke liked the execution.
"We did a good job offensively moving the basketball," he said, "and we've just been playing great defense lately."