WW South cruises past Boylan

Rob Kroehnke couldn’t have asked for a much better start.

Kroehnke’s No. 2-ranked Wheaton Warrenville South Tigers scored the game’s first 7 points, raced out to a 22-point halftime lead on Rockford Boylan and coasted home to a 70-44 win in the season opener at the Schaumburg Tournament.

“It’s a good start,” Kroehnke said. “We didn’t win anything today, but we had a good start.”

Meghan Waldron, who led the Tigers to a 28-4 season and a sectional final last year, picked right up where she left off.

WW South’s do-all junior point guard scored 14 points, pulled down 11 rebounds, dished out 7 assists and had 5 steals in three quarters of action. Waldron scored the Tigers’ first three baskets.

“We’ve been working hard in practice, and we really dedicated ourselves in the offseason too,” Waldron said. “I think we still need more time to click. We’re not there yet, but it will come.”

WW South went 5-0 at Schaumburg last year for the first time under Kroehnke, and Tuesday’s game was over early.

Pressuring Boylan led to easy scores at the other end, and everybody got into the act. Eight players scored in the first half, when WW South shot a blistering 81 percent from the field.

“I was very impressed with our intensity in the first half,” Kroehnke said. “We set the tone with our pressure, and that’s what we have to do. We did what we wanted to do. Shooting was outstanding.”

Sierra Bisso added 10 points and Maggie Dansdill 9 for the Tigers, who got a big boost off the bench from their aggressive backup posts.

Junior Melinda Franke and sophomore Olivia Linebarger each scored 12 points and had 4 rebounds apiece.

“Olivia and Melinda have a year experience now, and that’s the key,” Kroehnke said. “We knew we had something last year with them, but they were new coming into games. We knew what we had coming back. It’s nice to have that option coming off the bench.”

The competition will get tougher as the week goes on. WW South plays Glenbrook South Thursday, then meets up with Montini on Saturday in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup. The game has tentatively been moved to 11 a.m. because Montini’s football team plays at 1 p.m. that day.