WW South does just enough to defeat Wheaton North
Wheaton Warrenville South's boys basketball team survived one scoreless quarter.
The Tigers were in no mood to survive another.
In stepped Ben Bastian, whose 3-pointer accounted for his team's lone fourth-quarter points in Friday's 25-22 DuKane Conference victory over visiting Wheaton North.
Yes, the sole points - coming midway through the period to end a six-minute scoring drought - accounted for the final margin in a strange chapter of the cross-town game.
"Both teams were out there playing super aggressive on defense," Bastian said. "We just tried to look at it positively. Our shots weren't going in, but we were still playing good defense. We struggled in spots, but it still worked out in the end."
Before being too harsh on the offensive play, which wasn't great, the story was the impressive and gritty defense played by both sides. WW South took the lead for good with a 12-2 first-quarter run that featured a seven-minute drought for the Falcons. The lead grew to 22-8 in the third quarter while the Tigers held Wheaton North scoreless for 10 minutes.
Somehow Wheaton North (4-4, 0-3) managed a fourth-quarter rally. After holding the Tigers (5-4, 1-2) without a point the entire second quarter, the Falcons were just as stingy - almost - in the fourth.
Bastian's 3-pointer proved costly as it thwarted a 12-0 Falcons run that pulled Wheaton North within 22-20.
Both sides missed the front end of a 1-and-1 in the final minute. Wheaton North couldn't get off a good shot during a furious final eight seconds.
"Defensively, I'm obviously super proud of our effort and the fact that we didn't give up," said Falcons coach Dave Brackmann. "But I'm also very disappointed we put ourselves in that situation."
Parker Brown scored 7 points for the Tigers while Yonatan Algawerash and Bastian had 6 points. Ben Bonga scored a game-high 13 points for Wheaton North.
"In the third quarter we couldn't pull away, but man we were playing hard on defense," said Tigers coach Mike Healy. "We have to get better offensively, we know that. But to hold a team to 22 points ... they were just locked in defensively."
Twitter: @kevin_schmit