Timely 3s send Glenbard West on its way
When Waubonsie Valley rose to challenge Glenbard West in Wednesday's nonconference girls basketball game, the Hilltoppers rose to the occasion themselves.
Glenbard West pulled away to a 50-23 victory in Aurora in both teams' season opener.
"It's always good," Hilltoppers guard Catherine Reedy said of the season-opening win. "It's always good to know that you've got a win under your belt."
The Hilltoppers took a 14-4 lead early in the second quarter, but a pair of Gina Palasz baskets and a Tiffany Wall free throw cut the margin to 5. It wasn't until the end of the quarter that the Hilltoppers could pull away again. Two Reedy 3-pointers lifted Glenbard West to a 25-14 halftime lead.
"That was huge for us tonight," Hilltoppers coach Karen Persinger said of Reedy's 3s. "It was first-game jitters and new faces learning to play together. I could tell we were doing the things we were supposed to do, we were getting some nice looks, we just weren't knocking them down. When Catherine got those couple to go down it was almost like I could see everybody take a big exhale, like, Oh, OK. And it was definitely nice to go into half having that little cushion to allow us to just come out and play basketball."
Reedy finished with a game-best 14 points.
"We came off a pretty bad momentum shift," Reedy added. "I was just trying to look to shift it back to us. I just had some open shots go in. I was kind of hot so I kept shooting."
Those Reedy 3s sparked something in the Hilltoppers (1-0). They scored the first 13 points of the third quarter, lifting their lead into the 20s for the rest of the game.
"For me it was nice to see the leadership out of my returners. They finally looked like themselves," Persinger said.
The Hilltoppers did well defensively, too, forcing 31 Waubonsie Valley turnovers.
"Not bad," Persinger said. "There are some things we've got to work on, that's for sure, but there were moments that I thought the press, we did a nice job on the rotation and got our hands up and made ourselves big, which is very important for us to be successful with it. And there were times we were out of whack. First game out. We showed some signs of some good things to come."
"We didn't make any shots and we turned the ball over too much," added Warriors coach David Owles, who nevertheless was happy with his team's effort, even in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach. "We really struggled offensively, and I think that's what hurt us the most. And we gave them too many offensive rebounds."
Palasz showed some signs of good things to come for the Warriors (0-1) also, scoring a team-high 10 points and grabbing 7 rebounds.
"She is just a ball of energy," Owles said of the junior post player. "She is the biggest cheerleader when she is not in. She works hard. She has clearly has worked hard on her game since last year."
Junior Cameron Kruse came off the bench to score 12 points for the Hilltoppers, and sophomore Jamiyah Thomas had 10 points and 9 rebounds in the low post.
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