Girls Basketball: Waubonsie Valley takes down West Aurora

Updated: November 26, 2011 5:05PM

Waubonsie Valley’s girls basketball team may have beaten West Aurora to win the Warhawk Tournament Saturday, but it was hard to tell after seeing the Warriors after the game.

Waubonsie improved to 4-0 with the 43-36 win, but it was anything but a thing of beauty. The Warriors turned the ball over 27 times in the win, and know that if they want to maintain their unbeaten record and lofty preseason expectations, they will have to improve.

“I don’t have anything good to say, other than we won,” Waubonsie coach Kim Connell said. “We just didn’t play good, solid basketball. No consistency at all, especially after playing a good second half against a good DeKalb team (Friday). We have to get better, or else we’re going to get embarrassed.”

West Aurora (2-3) was scrappy throughout, and when Alexis Nelson (team-high 10 points) drilled a three-pointer to start the fourth quarter, the Blackhawks had cut the Waubonsie lead to a slim 31-29. As was the case the entire game, however, West struggled from the free throw line from there.

Twice the Blackhawks missed the front end of bonus situations as Waubonsie put together a 10-0 run to finally put the game away. West went 7-for-19 from the free throw line in the game and with chances to get close in the second half from the line, the Blackhawks were an even worse 4-for-15, including missing the front end of all three of their bonus chances.

“I was very upset with our free throw shooting,” West coach Connie Siljendahl said. “I can’t help them with that. They have to figure that out. We shoot a lot in practice. We even did a free throw fund raiser where they had to shoot a hundred free throws. We tried everything. It hasn’t worked.”

Waubonsie is still without point guard Becky Williford, who is recovering from knee surgery, and tournament MVP Tami Morice was held scoreless in the first half Saturday after suffering a finger injury, though the Warriors refused to use any of that as an excuse.

Erica Jordan picked up the slack with a game-high 15 points and Gratia Brooks added 10 points, but he Warriors were still disappointed with their performance after the tournament. Things get no easier next week with games against South Elgin Wednesday and Naperville Central Saturday.

“I wasn’t happy with the game,” Jordan said. “We won, that’s the positive, but we have to pick it up. I don’t know if we were tired or whatever, but we all know collectively as a team that we need to pick it up. The fun and games are all over.”

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