Wheaton Warrenville South rallies to beat Batavia

It was a lull of a start for Wheaton Warrenville South Friday at Batavia.

It turned into a storm.

The Tigers trailed 12-3 after a sleepy first quarter, but rebounded to beat the Bulldogs 65-59 in the DuKane Conference.

"We started off kind of slow," Tigers senior Ben Bastian. "In the huddle we talked about amping up the defense. We knew our offense was going to come from our defense. That's how it all started rolling."

The Tigers (17-9, 5-5) turned on the heat in the second quarter, outscoring Batavia 25-10. Evan England started off the quarter with a 3-pointer and teammates Yonatan Algawerash, Bastian and Jaylen Brown followed with their own 3s.

"This game was really important to us," Bastian said. "We lost earlier in the season at our place. We wanted to come out and show them how much better we've gotten."

"They beat us up early and then we had a very good stretch," WW South coach Mike Healy said. "Probably as well as we played all year. You do not want to get swept. You don't want to lose twice to a team. It was a big game."

The Tigers continued to outscore the Bulldogs (13-11, 4-6) in third quarter to end it ahead 44-29.

"We struggled in the second and third quarter with ball control. You can't give good teams extra chances," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said.

Batavia turned up the heat in the fourth quarter to score 30 points.

"We got off to a really fast start then second and third quarter it slipped away from us. I felt in the fourth quarter, we got our momentum back. A little too much, a little too late," said Kyle Neibch, a sophomore for Batavia.

Neibch and Jayden Johnson each scored 17 points for Batavia. Bastian also scored 17.

"This is my highest scoring game for the season. It was pretty fun," said Bastian.