Defense sparks Wheaton North past St. Charles East
In only a third of Wheaton North's games this season had an opponent reached the 40-point mark.
On Tuesday St. Charles East again saw firsthand just how tough the Falcons defense is.
With nine players registering steals, Wheaton North forced 27 turnovers in a 48-33 DuKane Conference home girls basketball win.
The Falcons (17-6, 9-4) allowed just 27 points to St. Charles East in the first meeting in January.
"It starts in practice," said junior Ellie Hubbard about the team's defensive prowess. "We go all out in practice. Especially our second group, our JV team, they are huge for us. They are what makes our defense better because they replicate what other teams do offensively.
"We just try to go all out and play hard all the time."
Hubbard led Wheaton North with 13 points, 9 of which came during a 17-4 third quarter spurt. The Falcons had a 25-14 advantage at halftime after notching 15 steals in the opening two quarters.
They finished with 21 steals, 4 apiece from Julia Simon and Ally Brown. Simon added 9 points and Caroline Gaither had 8.
"What this group is able to do, they do a great job of getting deflections," Wheaton North coach Dave Eaton said. "So No. 1, when you are always tipping passes, it makes it hard to move the ball. And No. 2, when you are able to get tips, it can lead to nice opportunities on the offensive end.
"Obviously, we are strong behind her, but a big key is Julia (Simon), she puts unbelievable pressure on the ball."
Sixteen girls played for a young Wheaton North team, which wraps up the regular season with a game against Batavia on Thursday.
"The exciting part of this group," Eaton said, "is they don't care who plays, they don't care who scores, they just care about winning. Their attitude is, let's just win and have fun. They do a great job of sacrificing for the team."
St. Charles East (8-22, 3-10) has just two seniors on its roster, one of whom (Ellie McCaslin) is out for the season. Torrie Kortan topped the team with 13 points and 4 steals and Gabby Schmidt tallied 11 points. MaKenna Brown also had 8 rebounds for the Saints, who outscored the Falcons 15-6 in the fourth quarter.
"These girls fight all the time," St. Charles East coach Aubree Schuett said, "regardless of what the situation is. I couldn't be more proud of them. Wheaton North is a great basketball team, but I'm proud of the way our kids fought. Are there things we have to work on, absolutely and we will get after those."