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Girls Basketball: West Aurora’s upset bid falls short vs WW South
Updated: January 19, 2012 10:33PM
As the lone unbeaten team in DuPage Valley Conference play, Wheaton Warrenville South’s girls basketball team knows every team it plays the rest of the season will be giving its best shot.
West Aurora did just that Thursday, but the Tigers had just enough to overcome it.
The Tigers didn’t wrestle the lead away from the upstart Blackhawks for good until the middle of the fourth quarter, holding on for a 53-48 win to improve to 18-2 overall and 7-0 in the DVC.
“Any way you can right now,” Wheaton South coach Rob Kroehnke said. “This comes with the territory. Everybody in conference wants to get us, and that’s just the way it’s going to be. We have to get used to it.”
WW South clamped down defensively in the fourth quarter to help pull away from West Aurora (9-9, 2-6), whom the Tigers beat by 22 points in the DVC opener. The Tigers held West without a field goal for a stretch of 6:43 in the fourth, putting together a methodical, 14-6 run in that span that held the Blackhawks at bay.
“I think we picked it up defensively because they were hitting shots,” said WW South forward Meghan Waldron, who scored a game-high 17 points in the win. “It wasn’t one of our best games, so we had to bring it out in the fourth quarter because we wanted to come out and get a W.”
West shot 11-for-17 from the field in the first half, including three three-pointers from Alexis Nelson, to take a 26-25 lead into the break. The Blackhawks cooled off in the second half, but still trailed only 37-34 after three quarters. West had the game tied at 43-43 with midway through the fourth before the Tigers were finally able to put them away for good.
“We did some nice things today,” West coach Connie Siljendahl said. “They’ve been working hard. We had kind of a rough practice yesterday, so you always wonder. I’m really proud of the girls; they’re playing well and coming together.”
Katherine Gassensmith scored 10 of her 15 points for WW South in the first quarter. Margaret Dansdill added 14 points before fouling out. Nelson, who came off the bench after being sick the past week, led West with 12 points, with Elizabeth Skaggs (11 points) and Abriya Zeitz (10 points) also reaching double figures.
With half of the DVC slate behind them, the Tigers know they will receive this type of effort from everybody they face from here on out.
“Any team in the DVC is going to come after us now because we’re the undefeated team,” Waldron said. “We have to expect that every game.”
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