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Girls Basketball: Waubonsie Valley thwarts upset bid, rallies past East Aurora
Updated: February 14, 2012 8:27PM
Waubonsie Valley’s Tami Morice admitted she and her teammates looked tired on the court in their Class 4A regional opener Tuesday against East Aurora. But it wasn’t because they woke up early to get ready for school on Valentine’s Day.
“I don’t spend a lot of time getting ready for school,” the senior guard said. “I never get ready for school. Everybody was dressed up cute for school today except us.”
If lack of sleep was not a factor, then what did lead to No. 6 Waubonsie Valley’s obvious malaise?
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Morice said.
Waubonsie Valley (24-2) used a 12-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to wipe out a 22-21 deficit and defeat the Tomcats, 36-28, and advance to the regional finals Thursday at 7:30 p.m. against the winner of the Oswego East/Naperville North semifinal.
Morice and Rachael Ross (seven rebounds) each scored eight points and Erica Jordan (five rebounds, four assists) and Becky Williford (eight rebounds) each had seven.
Waubonsie Valley, which beat East Aurora for the third time this season, led 15-10 at halftime and 19-12 early in the third quarter when the Tomcats (11-20) went on a 10-2 run to take its first lead since 2-0.
“I don’t know if it’s a matter of being tired, I’m not going to use that as an excuse,” Waubonsie Valley coach Kim Connell said. “I don’t substitute a lot, but we try to make sure they’re in decent shape. I think it was just lack of motivation.
“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t surprised because the first two times we played Aurora East it was the same game,” she added. “We don’t match their intensity, we play down a little bit. I told the girls after the game that whatever they brought against Bartlett and Geneva, they have to bring next time.”
Junior guard Tyshee Towner scored 11 points, freshman Alexis Wren added seven points and Marta Medina added six points for East Aurora, which did not make a field goal during the final 11:23.
“The thing I wanted to make sure is that we valued the basketball first of all,” Tomcats coach Bill Anderson said. “Waubonsie’s a pretty good team. They’re pretty physical, they guard the three-point line and they were rubbing our cutters.
“We were having some success, we just weren’t consistent,” he added. “We had some mental breakdowns. We’re a very, very young basketball team. I told the girls they had nothing to lose except a basketball game. Just go out there and play hard.”
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