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Conference title historic for West Chicago

It's been a long time coming, and on Wednesday night West Chicago continued to defy the odds.

The Wildcats made school history by winning a boys basketball conference title for the first time in the 113-year history of the school.

The Wildcats did it with an impressive 70-56 win on the road at South Elgin to finish the regular season 21-6 overall and 7-3 in the Upstate Eight Valley Division. They share the Valley title with Glenbard East. It's also the first 20-win season for West Chicago since it went 22-6 in 2004-05.

Tai Bibbs had a game-high 25 points for West Chicago and Quinn Ricci added 24 points.

"From the beginning of the season, we set out to prove a lot of people wrong," West Chicago coach Bill Recchia said. "There were several teams picked ahead of us, but we knew if we dedicated ourselves special things could happen. These kids have worked hard and I am extremely proud of each and every one of them."

Bibbs and Ricci set the tone early, combining for 16 points in the first quarter to help the Wildcats get out to 21-13 lead. The Wildcats extended the lead to 36-23 by halftime and maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half.

"This feels amazing," Bibbs said. "A lot of people doubted us because our record wasn't so good last year, but we had a feeling that we were building toward something. It has been a whole team effort. Even the guys who don't play much have made a big contribution by always pushing us hard in practice. That's what it takes - everyone buying into one goal. That has made it a lot of fun to be around this team."

Bibbs started strong with 9 points in the first quarter and finished strong with 8 points in the fourth to help ice the win. He was also 12 of 14 from the free-throw line. Ricci shot 9 of 14 from the field and had a team-high three 3-pointers.

"My teammates did a great job of finding me some open shots like they have all year," Ricci said. "I am just so proud of everyone on the team. We have all worked so hard for this. Everyone has had a great mindset and the same goal from Day One."

The Wildcats made 23 of 26 free throws. They also had a 34-25 rebounding advantage, including 12-5 on the offensive glass in the first half.

"We let the game get away from us," South Elgin coach Jim Cook said. "We just didn't move the ball the same way we did when we won our last game. Plus we had some breakdown in fundamentals by just not keeping our guy in front of us on defense and not boxing out on the boards. Those things come back to hurt you in the end."

South Elgin (12-16, 3-7) was led in scoring by Anthony Lynch with 13 points. Matt Smith added 12.

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