Willowbrook still undefeated after beating Addison Trail

After a strong second half with a young boys basketball squad last season, Willowbrook expected to be much improved this winter.

But could anybody have predicted the Warriors to be this good?

With four players checking into double figures, Willowbrook stayed undefeated on the young season Friday, improving to 7-0 with a 74-51 victory over archrival Addison Trail in Villa Park.

“They are an up-tempo team,” Addison Trail coach Brendan Lyons said. “They share the ball well and they have a lot of guys who can hurt you. When you have a variety of weapons and are unselfish, you are going to win a lot of games, and they will win a lot of games this year.”

Ten players entered into the scoring column for the home team, which raised its mark in the West Suburban Gold to 3-0. Marshawn Phillips came off the bench to lead the team in scoring with 15 points while adding 3 steals.

“We came out with a different focus this game,” Phillips said. “When we beat Morton (on Tuesday), we had a great first half, but the second half was not so good for us. We had to pick it up this game and get the ‘W.'”

Ethan Schuemer tallied 12 points and 6 rebounds for Willowbrook, which led 20-12 after the first quarter and 37-24 at halftime.

Sikander Zafar contributed 11 points and Ryan King made a pair of 3-pointers on his way to 10 points. The Warriors connected on 11 attempts from behind the arc.

“We were one of the youngest teams in the area (last season),” said Willowbrook coach Chris Perkins, whose team forced 18 turnovers with its half-court trapping defense. “There were several leads we blew last year and we still won 11 games. We knew a lot of key guys were graduating from the other schools and we had a lot of guys coming back.

“So now we are one of the more experienced groups even though we don't have a lot of seniors. We had a strong summer and that was definitely an indicator that we could be a lot better this year.”

After trailing by as many as 20 points in the third quarter, the Blazers (5-2, 0-2) got to within 12. But Willowbrook answered with a 10-0 run.

Michael Williams had 23 points and 6 rebounds, Jack Kalbas contributed 12 points and Colton Noel finished with 10 points and 9 rebounds.

“We need to find an identity on both ends of the floor,” Lyons said. “Some of the progress we thought we had made, it just wasn't there tonight.”