WW South rolls past Lake Park
There was nothing out of the ordinary Friday night at Wheaton Warrenville South, just a first-place boys basketball team rolling along and trying to make progress with each game.
The Tigers (18-4, 9-1 DuPage Valley Conference) dominated from the start and dispatched visiting Lake Park 56-27 despite playing without senior Jake Healy due to the flu.
What coach Mike Healy liked about the contest was that his team realized when it wasn't playing as well as it could and did everything to fix that.
"I like this group's maturity. At halftime there were some not good things, mental mistakes. But they knew that and took ownership of things. They are very coachable," he said.
The Lancers (5-14, 3-7) stayed with WW South the first four minutes or so of the contest and then the Tigers took over from there. WW South led 13-6 after the first eight minutes on 5-of-8 shooting from the field. The Tigers went on an 11-2 run the final 4:40 of the second quarter to lead at halftime 29-11.
That big advantage was built on solid 3-point shooting. WW South finished with 13 for the game, led by Matt Brodhead's 6. Brodhead finished with a game-high 20 points.
The team hit for four in the second quarter with two coming from Brodhead. He said that quickness was crucial to WW South's defense, which kept Lake Park under 30 points.
"We were real aggressive. We tracked the corners and speeded things up and we got deflections and fastbreaks and that helped," Brodhead said.
It was more of the same in the third quarter from WW South. It shot 5 of 9, which boosted it to a 43-22 advantage at the end of it.
Chase Stebbins followed on the WW South scoresheet with 11 points. Mike Healy also praised the play of Parker Robinson.
"Parker Robinson finds people. Guys love playing with him. If they're open, he finds them the basketball," Mike Healy said.
The Lancers, who return to action Tuesday at home against nonconference for South Elgin, were led by Daniel Spejcher with 8 points, all coming in the third quarter including two 3-pointers.
The Tigers are back on their home court Tuesday against Glenbard North.
"There are some things we need to work on, but we definitely like our progress," Stebbins said. "It was rough and tough at the beginning, but we got in gear and we are in midseason form."