WW South relies on its 'bread and butter' to beat Wheaton North
To get an entire team to completely buy in defensively is special, and Wheaton Warrenville South is living proof of that.
Holding their seventh opponent to fewer than 35 points, the Tigers continued their unbeaten start to the season with a 49-30 win over Wheaton North Friday.
WW South held the Falcons to 10 field goals while forcing 23 turnovers in improving to a perfect 9-0 overall and 4-0 in the DuKane Conference.
"The biggest thing tonight was playing aggressively defensively," said senior Rourke Robinson, who led all scorers with 17 points. "When we get on a roll defensively, we are a hard team to play against. At that point it comes down to whether we can execute offensively and knock down shots and we did that tonight.
"I'd say our defense comes down to the effort and intensity we bring to practice and games every day. Our scout guys really give us a good look. And then it's all about effort and heart."
Robinson scored 6 early points as the home team jumped out to a 13-6 lead after the opening eight minutes. Colin Moore then tallied 7 in a row to begin the second quarter as the advantage grew to 25-11.
Moore finished with 9 points while Tyler Fawcett also checked into double figures with 12 points to go along with 6 rebounds and 3 steals. Fawcett scored 6 points in the fourth to help push the margin to as many as 22.
Danny Healy contributed 7 points and 2 steals.
"It's important that we trust all our guys," Fawcett said. "We were moving the ball well and finding the open space. Definitely an attribute of this team is we don't have one guy we need to go to, we have five guys who can score the ball when we put them in position.
"It (the start to the season) is super exciting. We are doing our best to enjoy the moment and we are excited to see all our off-season work and giving it our all is paying off."
The double-digit victory was also the Tigers' seventh of the season. The most points they have yielded in a game so far is 48.
"We have some football kids who can read things," WW South coach Mike Healy said. "They have good feet, they play hard, they do well as a group. It's a pretty athletic group and they buy into it. That's kind of rare nowadays in high school basketball. It's a group that totally believes our bread and butter is defense.
"To get a group of high school kids to believe in what we do defensively is a tribute to them as kids. They are great kids. They are not looking for style points, they just want to play well together and they want to win. And they believe in each other."
Wheaton North (2-5, 0-4) was topped by the 10 points of Robbie Bonga. Noah Froebe, Eamon Kane and Seth Kortenhoeven all had 5 points apiece.
"To be honest, I'm proud of our effort," Wheaton North coach Dave Brackmann said. "We had a lot of pretty good shots, they just didn't go in the basket. But I'm really proud of the guys. We are a work in progress and they are a really great team playing on their home court. We are trying to improve."