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Johnson, WW South overwhelm Metea Valley

If you're Wheaton Warrenville South, it sure is nice to have Jayla Johnson on your side.

"Believe me, it's great," Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke said. "And we moved her around a little bit tonight. It was good to see her hit that outside shot."

The senior post player worked her way through the Metea Valley zone defense for 24 points. She also grabbed 8 rebounds, 6 steals and blocked 2 shots in the Tigers' 52-29 victory Thursday in Wheaton.

"They were really keying inside and making things a little clogged up in there," Kroehnke said. "So we spread things out and really opened up some other people once we moved her a little bit. You move her around and it changes the whole look of everything. She's playing really well. Really, really well."

"I try," Johnson said. "I try to do as much as I can and work together with my teammates and just make it all go together and fix the small mistakes."

On a night when the Tigers hit just 4 of 18 3-point shots, Johnson did yeoman's work in the lane along with junior MacKenzie Stebbins. Stebbins contributed 14 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals.

"She's been playing really well, and it's one of those where her and Jayla, especially against a zone, they've got to work together a little bit. And I thought they did a nice job finding each other tonight. It was nice to see," Kroehnke said.

Metea Valley also relied on a familiar face, junior post player Tess Thompson. Thompson notched 14 points and 6 rebounds.

"They're big and they're strong, and we got a good test tonight," Kroehnke said.

The Tigers defense also continued to shine. For the ninth time in 11 games, WW South (9-2, 4-2 DuPage Valley Conference) held an opponent to 31 points or fewer.

WW South scored the game's first 7 points, but it wasn't until the second quarter when the Tigers shook off the Mustangs (3-8, 0-6). A 14-9 lead after eight minutes became 30-17 after 16 minutes. It continued to grow in the second half.

"From an effort standpoint it was outstanding," said Metea Valley coach Cedric Williams, whose team came out with extra energy against the Tigers. "This was what we've been asking for from the first (part) of the season.

"If we continue that in practice, continue that next week, we'll roll into the holiday tournament and we're going to see some improvement. We've got a young bunch. We've just got to encourage them, motivate them and fix the little things."

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