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WW South buckles down against Geneva

Tyler Fawcett does whatever he can to get into his groove.

Fawcett, a Wheaton Warrenville South sophomore, starts the process with defensive rebounds and solid on-ball defense.

His scoring eventually comes.

It did Friday, as Fawcett scored 15 points to help the Tigers hold off Geneva 49-45 in DuKane Conference action.

"(Fawcett) finished around the rim. He's playing better, better and better," Tigers coach Mike Healy said following the Tigers' third consecutive win.

Yet the Tigers needed an all-hands-on-deck approach after Geneva's blistering start to lead 20-5 early in the second quarter. WW South answered with a 16-0 run to close the half ahead 21-20.

That wakeup call came in a first-half timeout. The message evidently clicked.

"Everything on our team starts with defense. We pride ourselves the most on defense," Fawcett said. "That's (what) helped spark the run. We just really needed to buckle down defensively."

The Tigers (15-8, 4-3) also heated up offensively.

Parker Brown's layup was followed by Yonatan Algawerash's 3-pointer. Algawerash's three-point play pulled his team within 7, Ben Bastian split two free throws and Fawcett scored on a layup. Bastian followed with a 3-pointer and Algawerash's steal and layup gave the Tigers the halftime lead.

Brown finished with 11 points and 8 rebounds, while Bastian had 9 points. Algawerash had 8, all in the second quarter. Jaylen Brown had 5 rebounds and was active in the passing lanes.

"Everybody that played did a great job of contributing," Healy said.

Geneva, down 10 with 4:17 left in the fourth quarter, whittled it to 3 with 50 seconds left on Nate Valentine's 3-pointer, but four free throws from Bastian and Jason Haw overcame Geneva sophomore forward Chris Suger's 12 fourth-quarter points.

"Wheaton South kind of out-Wheaton South'd us," Geneva coach Scott Hennig said. "They out-toughed us, (got) 50-50 balls, rebounded and that's what they do. They did a great job. I thought we battled in the second half."

  Geneva's Drew Johnson moves the ball against Wheaton Warrenville South in varsity boys basketball in the Orange & Black Gymnasium on the campus of Wheaton Warrenville South Friday night. Patrick Kunzer/pkunzer@dailyherald.com

Geneva (11-9, 4-4) was paced by senior forward Josh Preston's 16 points. Nathan Valentine had 8 points, while Drew Johnson had 6 points and 6 rebounds.

Suger has progressively improved throughout the season. The 6-foot-5 sophomore has gone in and out of the starting lineup throughout the season and evidently appears more comfortable on the court as his minutes grow.

"He's got a high IQ and he just continues to get better," Hennig said of Suger. "He's a coachable kid; he wants to learn, he wants to grow. He's come a long way. He's got a long way to go. He's just got to get stronger, and that'll come."

His teammates like Preston, Valentine and Dylan Fuzak have helped him get more comfortable with their team system.

"I came in (at the start of the season) and definitely felt like I was the odd man out," Suger said, "but now I feel like I'm part of this team and (I'm) here going forward."

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