Girls Basketball: Naperville Central tops WW South in thriller

Updated: January 26, 2012 10:29PM

Literally every possession counted in Thursday’s DuPage Valley Conference showdown between two red-hot teams contending for the conference title.

Naperville Central (15-8, 9-1) won the battle against Wheaton Warrenville South (20-3, 9-1) in a 52-49 thriller in Naperville. The game went down to the final possession, with the Tigers failing to get off a shot in the final seconds as they struggled in vain to control a loose ball.

“It’s nice to be able to finish one today,” Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said. “We’re playing better defense and we’re playing better team basketball. …I think our girls understand the team game much better than we did a month ago.”

The Redhawks now have won nine of their last 11 games.

The game was a rematch of the Dec. 13 contest, which the Tigers won 67-37.

Naperville Central senior Emma Donahue (18 points, nine rebounds) scored on a layup on the Redhawks’ final possession, giving them a three-point lead at 52-49. Then, needing a quick two or a three-pointer, the Tigers fumbled the ball around and were still trying to corral a loose ball when the final buzzer sounded.

“We’ve got to be ready to play,” Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke said. “There’s no more easy games (left in the DVC). They outplayed us (for) a little over three quarters.

“We made a nice run and just didn’t have enough at the end. They controlled the game today, offensively and defensively, and took us out of what we like to do. And they’re too good a team to just let them do what they want to do.”

Wheaton South controlled the first half and headed into halftime leading 25-23. When the third quarter started, though, a different Redhawks team emerged from the locker room. Naperville Central outscored the Tigers 21-11 in the third to seize a seemingly comfortable 44-36 lead after three.

A Victoria Trowbridge (13 points, 12 rebounds) layup for Naperville Central gave the home team a 37-31 lead with under three minutes to play in the third and Sarah Lang’s three-pointer made it 42-34 later in the period.

“I think we really just played like a team,” Trowbridge said of the third. “We’ve been struggling a little bit all year but I think we’ve really found our place together and we’re just playing as a team now and it’s really working for us.”

Added Nussbaum: “That was about the best offensive quarter we’ve had all year.”

Jamie Cuny struck with a three of her own to extend the Redhawks’ lead to 47-38 early in the fourth.

The Tigers were determined not to let Naperville Central relish its sudden surge in momentum and crept back into the game slowly but surely. Sierra Bisso’s baseline three-pointer cut the Redhawks’ advantage to 50-47 and a pair of Meghan Waldron (10 points) free throws inched WW South even closer at 50-49.

Katherine Gassensmith scored 14 for Wheaton South and Bisso and Krysta Watts each finished with eight. Margaret Dansdill scored nine to go with a team-high eight rebounds.

Jill D’Amico scored eight points for the Redhawks.

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