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WW South stays unbeaten with win at Wheaton North

Junior Parker Robinson and his Wheaton Warrenville South boys basketball teammates always have believed.

After Friday many others are beginning to as well.

Despite graduating a significant bulk of their scoring and rebounding, the Tigers are 5-0 after their emotional 47-38 victory at cross-town rival Wheaton North, which returns all five starters.

"This whole season we've had a chip on our shoulder," Robinson said. "Everyone's talking about Wheaton North and there wasn't that much talk about us coming in. Just playing our hearts out tonight, playing the best we could, it was a great feeling."

Senior Dillon Durrett had 17 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots, and junior Chase Stebbins had 14 points with 7 in the fourth quarter.

Before a packed gym for the DuPage Valley Conference boys basketball opener, the Tigers never trailed and withstood the Falcons (4-1) closing to 37-36 with 1:59 left on a basket by senior Luke Anthony.

The Tigers made 10 of their final 12 free throws, including 4 for 4 by senior guard Drew Healy.

"We had a little blip there, but I thought our kids reacted really well. I'm just really proud of the kids," WW South coach Mike Healy said. "They had five starters returning and they're dang good. We don't have much experience coming back, but our kids fight hard together, they enjoy each other a lot."

Anthony had half of the Falcons' points with 19. That included three 3-pointers and 11 of their 13 points in the fourth quarter to help them rally from a 36-27 deficit with 4:08 left.

After Anthony's final basket the Falcons missed a 3 that would have given them a 39-37 lead and all 5 of their 3-point attempts afterward.

"We just didn't play very well in all facets," Wheaton North coach Dave Brackmann said. "We didn't shoot well from outside. We missed a lot of shots around the basket. Even playing poorly, we had an opportunity and kind of let it slip away with a couple of bad possessions."

Two key surges kept the Tigers in charge. They opened a 10-2 lead and blocked three of the Falcons' first eight shots.

"The bottom line is we started poorly and that put us behind the 8-ball the entire game. They want to play a very low-scoring game," Brackmann said.

When Anthony opened the third quarter with a 3 to close the score to 22-21, the Tigers scored the next six points with help from three consecutive steals.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Tigers pulled away again with two layups from Stebbins and Robinson scoring off his offensive rebound.

"We just kept our focus, kept responding, just kept doing our game plan," Stebbins said. "Our first (conference) game at this place, a packed house, it was crazy. It was a good feeling, sweet running out on the court, seeing everybody out there. It's a hard environment."

The Falcons were 17-of-49 shooting with Anthony 7 of 15. They become the fourth team this season that the Tigers have held to 40 points or fewer.

"Obviously, to hold this team to that they have to miss some shots. And they did. But I thought we did a pretty good job of contesting shooters," Mike Healy said. "They made that one little run and we kind of withstood it."

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