Robinson's 24 leads WW South past Batavia

Rourke Robinson barely opened the door to enter the hallway for a postgame team conversation when applause erupted from his Wheaton Warrenville South teammates.

Robinson, a Tigers junior, exploded for 24 points to pace the Tigers to a comfortable 62-40 win Wednesday over Batavia.

That type of performance, evidently, isn't a surprise for the Tigers, who clinched the outright championship of the DuKane Conference.

"He's good. He's capable of it," Tigers coach Mike Healy said. "Works at it. Guys got all kinds of confidence in him. It was the first time that he really was consistent with it [shooting] like that. He works at it. All the guys, they're happy for him but they're not surprised."

Robinson spent last season down on the sophomore level. He works behind varsity veterans like Jaylen Brown, Parker Brown and Yonatan Algawerash, but has seemingly carved a solid niche role for himself as his shot develops.

"All offseason, all of us guys, it's really like a brotherhood," Robinson said. "We all come in, pretty much every day and we all just get shots up."

"We practiced all week for this team [Batavia]," Robinson said. "We did a lot of shooting in practice. [It] just helped me get rhythm out there. My teammates got me the ball and I guess my shots just fell in today."

Algawerash has apparently helped Robinson prepare for varsity level competition throughout the season.

"I really like watching Yoni play because he plays hard," Robinson said. "He hits shots and he's kind like a workhorse. He doesn't get tired."

"[Robinson's] a very good junior sitting behind some very good seniors," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said. "Credit the kid, he had a nice night."

WW South (14-2, 11-1) led Batavia (7-7, 7-5) by just three points heading into the fourth quarter, but five turnovers and small mistakes added up for the Bulldogs down the stretch.

Robinson hit a 3-pointer to open the quarter followed by a layup from Parker Brown. Batavia's Austin Ambrose answered with a layup, but Algawerash added a 3 of his own to make it a 9-point game with 4:44 left.

Robinson later hit back-to-back 3s to break the game open with three minutes left.

"We were there, but couldn't get all the way up," Nazos said of the final stretch. "We're better than where we were a couple weeks ago, but not quite there [yet]."

"Not only were there turnovers, there were turnovers that led to baskets 10-15 seconds later," Nazos continued. "We're going to learn from it and congratulate Wheaton South for winning the conference. To beat a conference title [winning] team, you can't give up those extra possessions. But, Wheaton South played hard and they did a lot of great things."

Following Robinson, Algawerash had 12 points while Parker Brown had 8 points and 5 rebounds.

Batavia was led by Ethan Ivan's 21 points and 6 rebounds. Trent Tousana has enjoyed a solid junior season but was limited to 10 points.

"Trent's now a focal point of [opposing scout teams] so I'm sure they wanted to keep him as far away from the bucket as they can and get guys on him," Nazos said. "[Plus], get the ball out of his hands. He's learning to play with being the center of attention with other teams. It's part of growing."