WW South denies St. Charles North outright DuKane title
Wheaton Warrenville South junior guard Yonny Algawerash summed up his team's grit and determination following the Tigers' 54-40 DuKane Conference basketball triumph over St. Charles North Wednesday night.
"We're undersized but we fight," said Algawerash, who led 4 players in double figures with 15 points. "We're all small but we can handle the ball and shoot.
"Not a lot of people believed in us but now people may actually start believing in us. We trusted the process and we won."
Parker Brown added 5 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter while Ben Bastian and Tyler Fawcett chipped in with 13 and 10 points, respectively, as the Tigers (19-11, 7-7) swept both of their games from the North Stars (21-8, 12-2).
"Our kids played really, really hard - they scrapped," said Tigers coach Mike Healy. "I don't know if we could have done that at the beginning of the year - how far they've come."
Algawerash helped get his team off to a promising start, scoring 8 points in the first quarter as the Tigers grabbed a 13-6 lead.
WW South continued its defensive dominance into the second quarter, limiting the North Stars to just 3 points while extending its halftime lead to 21-9.
Employing a packed-in zone defense while attempting to limit the offensive touches of St. Charles North's 6-foot-9 senior center Connor Linke, the Tigers forced the North Stars into 9 first-half turnovers - the same number as North points on the scoreboard.
"We were pretty locked in defensively," said Healy. "The defensive glass with Linke there - we were scared to death about that, but our guys battled and if they couldn't rebound it, they tapped it back out."
Coupled with St. Charles East's victory over Lake Park Wednesday night, the North Stars wound up having to share the conference title with the Saints.
"You're playing for the outright championship. You're playing to tie the school record for wins. You're playing the team that beat you earlier and we're asking before the game, 'Are you ready to go?'" said North Stars coach Tom Poulin.
"Our whole game plan centered around playing inside-out. It doesn't mean the big guy (Linke) is going to shoot every time but you saw what happened in the third quarter when you play inside-out."
St. Charles North outscored WW South 23-17 in the third period, cutting the deficit to 38-32 heading into the final 8 minutes.
The rally was short-lived, however, as the Tigers closed out the win with a 9-1 run over the final 2 ½ minutes.
"We failed tonight of playing the right way against this team," said Poulin, whose team was led by Linke's 14 points and 10 rebounds. "We didn't do what we worked on in practice.
"You have to say Wheaton Warrenville South is better than us this year with two W's. We're in no position to say anything else. Our goal was to go 7-0 the second time through (conference). We didn't reach it, but this experience is definitely going to make us better for the tournament."
Healy welcomed the late-season challenge from the North Stars.
"We said to the guys, 'There's no team that we'd rather play just because of how good they are and how much they'll prepare us for what comes next,'" said Healy.