Willowbrook gets Gold win at Addison Trail

Kalyn Konrath is trying to make Willowbrook opponents rethink their game plan.

The senior post player had another big game in the Warriors' 53-37 girls basketball victory at archrival Addison Trail on Saturday afternoon, scoring 18 points and grabbing 6 rebounds while another foe focused its defense on fellow post Josie Zabran.

"Kalyn's picking it up," Willowbrook coach Terry Harrell said. "I'm telling you, she's battling. Kalyn does a good job in the two-man game with our guards, and our guards, they really work to get the ball to the post. She does a good job of spacing the court, and she ends up in the right spot and gets good shots. And she's putting them in."

"I'm drawing fouls, trying to get to the free-throw line," added Konrath, who also scored 18 Tuesday at Downers Grove South. "If people are going to keep double-teaming Josie, that leaves me open a lot, so I've got to step up for my team."

Zabran didn't score until late in the third quarter but still finished with 9 points. Sparkplug point guard Dani Velasquez added 10 points, 6 assists and 4 steals.

Willowbrook (4-6, 2-2 West Suburban Gold) jumped out to an 18-8 lead early in the second quarter when Velasquez found Konrath for a basket. The Blazers (2-6, 0-4) responded, cutting the lead to 2 points by halftime on senior Maria Koulogeorgas' steal and layup.

"We played really well ... the whole first half," Blazers coach Rob Schader said. "I thought we did a nice job of moving the basketball offensively and played very well defensively the first half."

Junior Alyssa Pham scored 11 points in the first half and finished with a Blazers-best 17. Koulogeorgas scored 10 of her 11 points in the first 16 minutes.

"Both are playing really well," Schader said.

That second-quarter finish left the Warriors steaming in their locker room, Konrath said.

"We had a good talk in the locker room and decided what we needed to get done," she said. "Basically it was defense. We needed to just play defense like we can, man to man, and that's what we did."

"They played better defense than the last time we saw them play, so they've improved since the start of the year," Harrell said of the Blazers. "But our girls just kept running our sets and got the shots we wanted. We didn't make a lot early. And then the second half we got those shots."

Willowbrook pulled away in the third quarter, outscoring the Blazers 15-5. The lead topped out at 20 points in the fourth quarter.

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