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Lisle earns a break with win against Wheaton Academy

Lisle coach Nick Balaban canceled Saturday's girls basketball practice. His players earned it Friday night.

A night after losing an overtime Interstate Eight Conference game at Reed-Custer, the Lions starters nearly went the distance against Wheaton Academy and its frenetic style. Lisle scored the first 14 points of the game and never trailed to earn a 70-47 nonconference victory Friday in Lisle.

Sending in subs in waves of five every minute or two while playing 12 girls, Wheaton Academy pushed the pace of the game. The Warriors (3-5) looked to trap and force turnovers or quick shots defensively and take plenty of quick shots of their own offensively. They converted 17 of their 79 shots, including 9 of 46 3-pointers.

"I told the players before the game, I said, Hey, listen, we're back on short notice here," Balaban said. "We played 36 minutes last night, and we've got to go up against this onslaught of pressing and shooting the 3 and waves of five coming in every couple of minutes. The girls really responded."

The shooting onslaught is part of the Warriors' plan this season.

"We had some great looks and just couldn't get it to fall today," first-year Warriors coach Tory Gum said. "We'll have better nights shooting, I'm not worried about that."

After that great start the Lions (7-4) started to tire in the second quarter. The Warriors cut the Lisle lead to 30-24 at halftime and pulled within 4 points in the third quarter before Lisle regained its footing and extended the margin.

"I've been proud of a lot of teams, but this was a special night for us to get the performance that we did," Balaban said. " ... I thought with the exception of that second quarter, I thought our defense was pretty solid and our rebounding - which has been an Achilles' heel for us at times this year - I thought our rebounding was tremendous."

Playing aggressively, the Warriors also fouled often, and the Lions made them pay. Lisle made 24 of 36 free throws, with junior point guard Natalie Takahashi leading the way at 14 of 18.

"Defensively, we did a better job of anticipating a little bit more on our defensive rotations," Gum said. "So I was real proud of them to kind of claw back in there that first half. We had a good game there in the third quarter and it was a great battle, but (the Lions) did a nice job attacking us in transition and we gave up a few opportunities behind us."

Takahashi led all scorers with 24 points as Lisle set its season high offensively with the 70 points. She also grabbed 9 rebounds, dished 5 assists and grabbed 2 steals.

Senior TyAnn LeGrand-Melton added 17 points and 9 rebounds, and Nicole Cyranoski added 15 points. Lisle played seven girls, but the first five played virtually the entire game.

Emily Renn led Wheaton Academy with 11 points, and Chrislyn Herring added 10.

Follow Orrin on Twitter @Orrin_Schwarz

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