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Downers Grove North defense stops WW South

When you hold a good girls basketball team like Wheaton Warrenville South to less than 30 points, you celebrate it.

So Downers Grove North did.

"I'm proud of the defensive effort we had against a good team," Trojans coach Stephan Bolt said, explaining his team's spirited reaction to what seemed to be a routine early-season 31-27 victory Tuesday at the Schaumburg Thanksgiving Tournament. "They're tough to guard because every one of them can shoot it, handle it. I thought it was just a great defensive effort on our part tonight. It was fun to watch."

"We wanted to start the season out right, and Warrenville is a really good team," Trojans junior guard Ellie Gross added. "I think we're all proud of the way we competed at the end of the game and happy with the win."

The view wasn't as good from the other bench.

"We shot the ball great in the first half," said Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke, whose team made 7 of 13 shots in the first half, 1 of 13 in the second, "and then terrible in the second half. You miss that many free throws, that many shots in the second half, we were lucky we were that close."

After taking a 13-8 first-quarter lead thanks to a 9-0 run, the Tigers (1-3) scored just 14 points the remaining three quarters. They made 9 of 15 shots at the free-throw line.

"We take a lot of pride in our defense in this program, and a lot of girls played great," Gross said. "Like Julia (Kramper) and Lauren (Sebek) on the perimeter and Jalyn (Harris) got in there, guarded some perimeter players. Everybody, it was a great effort on defense."

The Trojans (2-2) seemed flustered at first by the Tigers' own swarming defense, with 8 first-quarter turnovers. But they gained confidence to come back in the second quarter and take a 19-18 halftime lead.

"I think they just overwhelmed us a little bit to start, and then we just settled in and took our time a little bit more and made the plays we're supposed to make and we started sliding to the spots we're supposed to be in. ... We adjusted well, I thought, after a rough start."

The Trojans took their biggest lead at 29-22 lead with 5:23 to play on a basket by junior Alexis Parker, who led everyone with 9 points. That was too much for the Tigers to overcome.

"We don't do a good job of chasing when we're down," Kroehnke said. "I thought we forced a couple of shots, and then defensively they can spread us out a little too much, gave up a couple of easy ones that maybe we wouldn't give up if we had the lead. But they're a solid team, tough and physical."

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