Defense carries Wheaton North to victory

Hannah Swider and the Wheaton North girls basketball team know what their bread and butter is.

"We pride ourselves in our defense and making sure that we're pressuring the ball and that we are a constant pressure on people," the senior said.

Morton discovered that firsthand Friday night at the Lyons Twp. Guard Your Yard Turkey Tournament. The Falcons limited the Mustangs to 1 third-quarter point and 6 points overall in the second half, opening their season with a 52-22 win.

Swider and the Falcons (1-0) have a simple defensive motto, especially after halftime.

"We talk about having a single-digit quarter and making sure that they score less than 10 points," Swider said.

Wheaton North did that, and then some. Even the Falcons were a tad surprised at just how stingy they were defensively.

"To have them only scoring one point, at that point, was pretty incredible and that really hyped us up," Swider said. "We were so excited for that. That was awesome."

Wheaton North limited Morton to single digits in the first and third quarters, too. Morton (1-1) was held to 11 points in the second quarter.

But for all of Wheaton North's defensive dominance in the second half, Morton's defense was as tight.

The Mustangs limited the Falcons to just 4 points in the third quarter, and the first field goal of the second half didn't come until a layup by Wheaton North's Nikki Baird with 1 minute, 40 seconds left in the third.

"Defensively, I thought both teams played really well," Wheaton North coach Dave Eaton said. "They were probably having the same halftime speech that we did - come out and get stops to start the second half. I thought both teams did that really well. Nobody got an easy look on either side of the ball."

Part of that, at least for Wheaton North, was Morton's full-court press. That gave the Falcons fits both to start the game and the second half.

"We knew they were going to really press us," Falcons senior Sophie Ahlberg said. "They ran a 1-2-2 (press) and it's kind of hard because they look like they're in man, too."

Ultimately, though, it was Ahlberg running the point who allowed the Falcons to break Morton's press.

Ahlberg ran up the court before Morton could really set their press and found her teammates in space to get quick scores.

"Whenever I'm on the floor I just always try to see who my personalities around me (are)," Ahlberg, who finished with 4 points and 4 assists said. "I know that I can drive and kick, so I try to go inside and make the defense collapse and try to kick out for (Swider and Baird)."

The biggest takeaway, though, for Wheaton North will be how tough their defense played, especially in the second half.

"It's great knowing that, if this is our first game defensively, we're going to be getting better and better each game," Swider, who finished with a game-high 18 points, said. "So if this is our starting point, we're going to pretty good and I'm excited for that. It's going to be exciting to see where we go from."