Waubonsie Valley too hot for Naperville Central to handle
Zone or man-to-man, when Waubonsie Valley shoots and plays team basketball like it did Friday, even adding a sixth defender might not matter.
Ruling a marquee DuPage Valley Conference matchup with host Naperville Central, the Warriors hit 6 first-quarter 3-pointers, 10 of 15 for the game, and overall shot 26 of 48 from the floor to beat the Redhawks 73-44 in Naperville.
Outrebounding Naperville Central 26-19 with just 8 turnovers, Waubonsie Valley (16-1, 3-1) drew even with Naperville Central (11-3, 3-1) behind 4-0 DVC leader DeKalb.
"We were in kill mode from the very start," said Waubonsie forward Ben Schwieger, who amassed a game-high 26 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals.
"We had a couple of really good practices, high-intensity practices, and we knew what we had to do. We executed on offense and defense," said the 6-foot-5 Schwieger. He led four Warriors in double figures with Marcus Skeete at 17 points, Isaiah Smith with 11 and Adri Malushi with 10.
Schwieger hit his first two 3-pointers for an early tie. Waubonsie Valley kept on going with 3s from Smith and two from Skeete that bookended a Smith fastbreak dunk.
Waubonsie led 22-9 after one quarter.
"After it was 6-6 we hit another two shots and they only scored 3 points the rest of the first quarter," said Waubonsie coach Jason Mead. "So finishing plays with rebounds and then forcing them to have to decide what they were going to do defensively I think put them in a little bit of a bind."
A key was not getting pounded by the 6-6 Dougherty, 6-5 Matt Murphy and particularly 6-10 Chris Conway. Waubonsie Valley's 6-6 Carter Langendorf entered quickly off the bench to provide yeoman work on the tall Oakland (Michigan) recruit. What's more, Langendorf joined the 3s fiesta with a silky 3 from the top of the key.
"That was the most important part of our game plan, I think," Langendorf said of the post defense. "The whole team, we did a great job. Everybody helped, it wasn't really just me. I was able to front (Conway), but I need everybody else to help."
Dougherty, whose 20 points led Naperville Central, got things going in the second quarter. His 9 points helped pull the Redhawks within 37-26 at halftime.
Waubonsie played the third quarter like a repeat of the first. Right off the bat Malushi stole the ball, leading to a Schwieger three-point play, then the first of three straight Redhawks missed shots.
"Our kids came out with a moxie and a swagger today that I kind of like," Mead said.
Waubonsie opened the second half on a 16-2 run and led 58-31 after three quarters.
"It's not like they had a magical ball and they were shooting it," Dougherty said. "They were getting wide-open looks because they were breaking our defense down. That's something that we've got to get in the gym, watch some film and fix."
Last season Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer played the same matchup zone and beat Waubonsie 42-32. Not on Friday.
"When a team shoots like that there's not a whole lot you can do," he said. "When you play 30 games in a season you're going to run into times (like that)."