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WW South needs no surprises against St. Charles East

A pair of "Ps" paced Wheaton Warrenville South to a 52-38 DuKane Conference defeat of visiting St. Charles East on Friday night: "pressure" and "possession."

A stifling press that forced 8 first-quarter turnovers and held the Saints to 4 first-half baskets combined with an offense that might have held the ball for 24 of the game's 32 minutes if time-of-possession stats were kept elicited another "P" from St. Charles East coach Patrick Woods: "perfection."

"You know they're gonna 1-2-2 press you and run clock like no other and they did that to perfection tonight," he said.

The Tigers (5-2, 1-1) set the tone from the game's opening possession as they held the ball for 67 seconds before even attempting a shot - a converted Joe Ives 3-pointer. The defense then forced the Saints (5-3, 1-1) into turnovers on three of their first four possessions and at one point they went more than 10 minutes without a basket. The result was 9-0 and 18-6 leads for the Tigers before they settled on a 21-12 halftime edge on Ives' 3-pointer at the buzzer, after WW South had milked the half's final 40 seconds off the clock.

"I saw the rim, I saw I was open and I shot it," said Ives. "I'm just thankful it worked out and I hit it."

"We were pretty good defensively, both in the full court and half-court," added WW South coach Mike Healy. "Our closeouts were a lot better than Tuesday night (in a loss to Glenbard West). We just have to keep learning and learning and learning - and that's the sign of a pretty mature group, when you do keep learning."

The Saints came out in the second half and gave the Tigers a taste of their own medicine as their own full court press sparked a 13-3 run to start the half with Mark Musial's layup giving St. Charles East its first lead at 25-24.

"I like the way we regrouped," Woods said. "We showed a lot of fight, they threw some punches and we were knocked around, but you have to play 32 minutes and we only played 12 to 16 minutes tonight."

The advantage was short-lived, however, as Jeff Kratz and Ives hit back-to-back treys to return the advantage back to WW South. Then, with the score 36-31, Matt Scherrman drained a pair of pinpoint (another "P") 3-pointers from the corner in a 20-second span to bump the lead to an insurmountable 42-31.

"They do the hard part," Schermann said of Ives, Kratz and Owen Struebing at the head of the press. "They broke the press and got the ball to me; I give them the credit, they worked hard and I was just able to hit them."

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