No denying Swider, Wheaton North in DVC opener
Wheaton North senior Hannah Swider figured out how basketball players handle the stomach flu.
There's nothing like a 3-point basket on the first possession of the big rivalry game against Wheaton Warrenville South to make that queasy feeling go away.
Swider scored 19 points to lead the Falcons to a 46-35 home victory against their cross-town rival Thursday night.
"Hitting that first 3 always gives you that extra juice in you, especially being a 3-pointer," said Swider, who described a restless, "brutal" Wednesday night. "It's so sweet, and after that I kind of forgot about being sick."
Falcons coach Dave Eaton called the shot, "a big relief for everybody."
There was never any doubt the Wheaton College recruit would play, even if she did sleep in a little Thursday morning.
"Being my senior year and last home game against South on our home court, 100 horses couldn't keep me away from this game," she said.
"My dad (Wheaton College football coach Mike Swider) always teaches me, you can't let anything affect your game. No matter how bad you feel. Michael Jordan, he played with what, a 102-degree fever, and he played his best game of his life. There's no excuses in my household. Being sick, you've just got to go out there, you've got to suck it up and play."
The teams were tied at halftime, but the Falcons (5-0, 1-0 DuPage Valley Conference) earned a 33-27 lead after the third quarter. That lead was in jeopardy when the Tigers (5-1, 0-1) opened the fourth quarter with 5 Jayla Johnson points to make the score 33-32.
"They're a good team. They never quit, and it showed when they got back into the game," Swider said. "We can't freak out about those times. We have to stay calm in those situations."
The Tigers missed a chance to take the lead, then the Falcons took over, scoring 9 straight points. The Tigers only scored a Mira Emma 3-pointer the rest of the game.
Sarah Topps' 3-pointer, her only points of the game, made it 40-32 with 3:10 to go.
"The 3 from Topps was big just to give us a little bit of breathing room," Eaton said. "Especially after rolling an ankle."
Nikki Baird swished a couple of free throws as the lead hit double digits for the first time.
"They're too good," Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke said. "They're just too good to not make plays. And when you dig yourself a hole against that team, they can handle the ball, they're big, they just outphysicaled us, especially in the second half on the boards. There were a couple of offensive rebounds, I thought, that were huge. A couple of missed shots that we had turned into a couple of things for them.
"Our effort is fantastic. We just need to get a little tougher."
Baird added 15 points and 7 rebounds for the Falcons. Johnson led the Tigers with 14 points and 6 rebounds despite being the focal point of the Falcons' defense, Mackenzie Stebbins added 10 points for the Tigers.
"They were just sitting in the post, helping out on Jayla, and she still had a great game," Kroehnke said. "We need some other ones to step up their game a little bit and Jayla to continue doing what she's doing, because she's having a great year."