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Wheaton Warrenville South bounces back, extends DVC lead

With injured leader Erin Madigan relegated to cheerleader while wearing a knee brace on the bench, it's no surprise at all that things have not come easy this week for Wheaton Warrenville South's girls basketball team.

But the young DuPage Valley Conference leaders made great strides Thursday night in a 44-36 win over visiting Glenbard North. The Tigers, who suffered their first conference loss Tuesday against Lake Park, started slow on Thursday and trailed the Panthers 8-4 after one quarter.

But sophomore Jayla Johnson led a turnaround that saw the Tigers take an 18-17 lead into halftime after Sarah Struebing's 3-pointer went down at the buzzer. Johnson finished the night with 16 points and 10 rebounds and helped a defensive charge that slowed down Glenbard North's Jennifer Deegan, who tallied 9 points in the first half but then settled for just 4 free throws in the second half.

"It is a nice win," Johnson said after Wheaton Warrenville South improved to 9-1 in the DVC, 1.5 games ahead of Naperville Central. "It's been rough without (Madigan). But we're trying new things in practice and trying new offenses. We're trying to make up for her (absence) and we have to keep working hard."

Johnson worked hard down low, earning 11 free throws - 8 of which she made - and also coming away with a big offensive rebound off a teammate's missed free throw that led the way to a 41-29 lead with three minutes to play. After Jayne LaBelle split a pair of foul shots, Johnson snuck in for an offensive rebound and set up LaBelle for a basket and the 12-point lead.

"She went crazy," Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke said of Johnson's double-double. "I think for us confidence-wise, everybody's got to feel like they can do it. It was a struggle the other night against Lake Park. Tonight I thought we did a much better job offensively. We got some open shots and we moved the ball better."

Freshman Mira Emma hit two big 3s in the third quarter and then made all 4 foul shots in the fourth quarter to finish with 10 points and 3 rebounds.

"We just needed to step it up on defense and run our offense," Emma said, explaining Tuesday's turnaround.

"Those 3s gave us confidence. With Erin down everyone just has to give a little bit more, maybe one or two rebounds here or there."

For the Panthers, now 10-10 overall and 3-7 in the DVC, Lauren Lee led the way with 18 points after connecting on four 3-pointers. But after the early success by Deegan inside, Glenbard North struggled to get enough high percentage shots.

"We were really doing a nice job getting the ball inside to Jen in the first half then for whatever reason, and they made some adjustments, we weren't doing that," Panthers coach John Chamberlain said.

"It kind of became a 3-point barrage by us and we weren't hitting shots. We just went real cold."

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