Willowbrook keeps pace in Gold

If Willowbrook has to play a little longer than normal to get a West Suburban Gold girls basketball victory in its quest for a division championship, then so be it.

On Tuesday the Warriors went to overtime to knock off a persistent Hinsdale South team 44-41 in Darien.

"Based upon this team and based upon what I've seen from other teams in the conference, our conference is wide open," Willowbrook coach Terry Harrell said. "Not like it's been the last three years where somebody runs off and you just hope somebody else can help a team that's in the hunt. It's legitimately four teams competing for the conference this year, and I think we're one of them."

The Warriors (6-5, 3-2) got this Gold win by dumping the ball into the post to junior Josie Zabran, who had some epic battles down low at both ends of the court against the Hornets' Cheyenne Stage.

"Josie's a good player, really strong," Warriors senior guard Micala Giammarino said.

"If they have to deal with our post 1-on-1, we're pretty good in the post," Harrell added. "... They went at it down low. Josie's a tough girl, and we have some tough girls at practice that go at it with Josie, so she's used to that."

Zabran finished with a game-best 22 points and 8 rebounds. She sank the game-winning basket with 40 seconds to play in overtime, with Giammarino adding a free throw with six seconds to go.

Stage had 6 points and 8 rebounds.

"Cheyenne has done really great despite a couple of injuries and stepped into a starting role," Hinsdale South coach Brett Love said. "She rebounds for us, plays tough down low and scores some baskets."

Sydney Kopp led the Hornets (4-7, 1-3) with 19 points and 6 rebounds.

But when it mattered most, Willowbrook was just a little better in most areas, especially on defense.

"We really picked up our defense, we picked up our help-side," Giammarino said. "We played together as a team. The two girls in foul trouble (Zabran and Samantha Schmidt finished with four apiece) kept themselves under control and played straight-up defense. Shots began to fall."

"Everything but free throws," Harrell added. "If we hit some free throws we might actually have some points on the board. But I don't care if we got points because we got a win."

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