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WW South narrowly outlasts Lake Park

Dillon Durrett and his Wheaton Warrenville South teammates knew they were in for a boys basketball battle Friday night at Lake Park.

That didn't bother them.

Durrett scored a team-high 15 points and the Tigers committed only 8 turnovers to squeak past the host Lancers 38-34 to remain unbeaten in the DuPage Valley Conference.

WW South (21-1, 10-0) won despite not recording a rebound in the first half of a game that was played at Lake Park's deliberate pace.

"We just work hard," Durrett said. "That's how we handle pressure. It's not anything but getting in the gym and working hard."

The Tigers felt plenty of pressure against the Lancers (10-9, 5-5), who shot 12 for 18 from the floor and 8 for 9 from the line and outrebounded WW South 11-4.

Both teams like to use motion offenses that protect the ball and get good shots, and Lake Park did the better job of it in the first half, grabbing a 6-0 lead before taking a 20-18 cushion at halftime.

But with possessions at a premium, the Tigers didn't panic.

"It makes us think more," Durrett said. "It makes us smarter, so instead of just throwing the ball, just think twice and make sure it's really there before we throw it."

Durrett shot 5 for 7 from the floor and made all 3 of his free-throw attempts. He didn't miss in the second half, driving for a three-point play with 45 seconds left in the third quarter after the Lancers had pulled within 23-22 on a steal and layup by Garrett Fant.

"We talked before the game about how we might have to put the ball on the ground against this defense," Durrett said. "I did, I turned the corner and saw the rim and didn't stop."

As good as Durrett was offensively, it was defense that helped the Tigers take the lead. They allowed only two shots in the third quarter and held the Lancers scoreless for seven minutes.

"I thought our third quarter was really good defensively," WW South coach Mike Healy said. "It felt like they shot a lot of layups in the first half.

"We kind of got back to being a little bit more fundamental and maybe less gambling than we were in the first half because they were exposing us."

Fant tallied a game-high 21 points on 8-for-11 shooting, including a three-point play that cut the gap to 30-29 at the 5:14 mark of the fourth quarter. But only three other players scored for the Lancers.

The Tigers, meanwhile, got 9 points from Drew Healy, including three straight free throws in the fourth quarter. Chase Stebbins added 7 points and Jake Healy 5.

Layups by Durrett and Jake Healy and a free throw by Stebbins bumped the lead to 38-31 before Fant sank a 3 at the buzzer.

"We tell our kids that when you play against Lake Park that they just playing so stinking hard," Mike Healy said. "I think they're the best defensive team in the area and we always have trouble scoring and we did again tonight.

"But I also thought our kids found a way. We said at halftime that things weren't going extremely well for us, but I liked our reaction."

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