Wheeling passes tougher test from Leyden
Wednesday's nonconference girls basketball game between Wheeling and Leyden turned out much more competitive than three weeks earlier when the teams met at the Blenner Classic at St. Viator High School.
But the outcome remained the same as Wheeling improved to 12-7 with a 36-33 triumph in Franklin Park.
The Wildcats won 58-38 in Arlington Heights on Dec. 27.
Wheeling senior Nansy Velev deflected an inbounds pass in the final four seconds to help prevent the host Eagles from getting the ball past half court for a game-tying 3-point attempt.
"Nansy is a great defender," said Wheeling coach Matt Weber of his only senior. "She has good instincts. She is able to put a lot of pressure on the ball."
Those same skills helped the Eagles make the game much different from when they fell in December.
"They (Leyden) did a great job putting pressure on our posts, and No. 3 (Jasmine Igartua) and 22 (Amalia Figueroa) did a nice job putting pressure on our guards," Weber said. "Credit Leyden. They played extremely well."
The game featured a homecoming of sorts for coaches on both sides.
Weber's assistant Bill Murmann, an East Leyden graduate, played games in the West Leyden gymnasium that hosted Wednesday's contest.
Leyden head coach Stephanie Kuzmanic was an all-state guard for Wheeling.
Kuzmanic liked the improvement she saw from her team, which was led in scoring by Igartua (8 points), Alexia Samuel (8), Pamela Colmenares (6) and Figueroa (6), who hit two big 3s to keep the Eagles threatening in the final quarter.
"Going from losing by 20 points to a 3-point loss that comes down to the end of the game, you've got to look at this and be happy your kids are improving," Kuzmanic said. "They made adjustments that we asked of them.
"It's always a fun time when you get to play against your alma mater. We didn't like the way it turned out last time. We made a lot of changes on the offensive and defensive ends, and a lot of it worked."
Wildcats sophomore Morgan Collar worked hard inside to score a game-high 18 points while junior teammate Nosa Igiehon did the same to score 8 points with more than a handful of rebounds.
"The key was that we wanted to take away their points in the paint," Kuzmanic said. "The first time we played, Igiehon dropped in 19 and Collar had 24. We held them under those numbers this time.
"We kind of switched up how we played defense and I think it surprised them. Our goal was to protect the paint every time those two caught it. And we had three girls triple teaming them when we could. We were able to get them to turn it over a lot so that helped."
Sophomore Chloe Drozdz also scored 8 points for Wheeling while classmate Sophia Stanke scored a 10-footer from the baseline that gave Wheeling it biggest lead of the game at 26-10 with 1:23 left in the first half.
"At the beginning of the game I thought we did a nice job running the floor," Weber said. "And a good job defensively, But credit Leyden (7-10). They had a great game plan for us. They made us work hard every single possession. I'm proud of my girls for how they finished."
"They did a great job putting a lot of pressure on our posts. I thought No. 32 (Samuel) did a nice job inside and outside. It helps being on your homecourt, but credit them. They did a great job and we just have to learn from our mistakes and get better. "
"None of my shots were falling," Velev said. "I was trying to get the ball inside so we could get easy points. We've just got to play as a team. If you play as individuals you won't go anywhere.
'It was really nice winning the Prospect game (Wildcats' last game) but it's not over. We've got to keep getting the wins and keep playing like a team."
The Wildcats host MSL East co-leader Hersey on Friday.
"We just have to take what we can from this and get better," Weber said. "We have to be prepared for Hersey on Friday. That's our focus now."