Willowbrook takes victory from West Chicago
When his team sets up its press, Willowbrook coach Chris Perkins calls it "going hunting."
That makes it even more appropriate to call his lightning-quick guards, like Sam Tumilty and Everett Stubblefield III, ballhawks.
The ballhawks found plenty of prey in the second quarter of a Class 4A regional opener, when the 13th-seeded Warriors went on a 12-2 run and forced 8 turnovers to break the game open against No. 18 West Chicago.
"We pushed the tempo on defense in the second quarter," said Stubblefield, who collected at least 6 steals on the night. "Coach wanted us to increase the lead before halftime, so we pressed them more to get the ball out of their guards' hands and get easy transition baskets."
The 14-point lead Willowbrook grabbed in the second quarter was never in jeopardy. The Warriors advanced with a 68-50 victory in Villa Park.
The Warriors were led by sophomore post Sean Paige, who scored 11 of his game-high 15 points in the third quarter. Tumilty and Stubblefield followed with 14 and 13, respectively, while Deandre Holliday chipped in 10 points and 3 steals.
Willowbrook forced 21 turnovers and committed just 11.
"We're at our best when we're able to fly around," Perkins said. "We call it we're going hunting. Always in attack, gotta be aggressive. And when the ball goes over our heads, we got to be swarming."
West Chicago kept things interesting early, thanks to a big first-quarter from junior Ryan Schmidt, who had 6 points and a block in the opening period.
Two blocks from Daniel Roldan and four rebounds from Christian Krahenbuhl had the Wildcats within four after the first.
West Chicago coach Bill Recchia then noticed a problem.
"We got one 50/50 ball in the first half," he said. "They were quicker to the basketball than we were on the loose balls, and there were at least seven or eight of them. We had 13 turnovers in the first half. That's 13 shots we don't get off and 13 more they do get off."
Junior sharpshooter Jacob Lim did what he could for West Chicago, drilling six 3s for a game-high 19 points on the evening. But Willowbrook always had an answer.
Krahenbuhl scored 13 points to go with 6 rebounds, a block and a steal to end his three years on varsity for the Wildcats.
"I think it was just one of those days," Krahenbuhl said. "There were a lot of mental lapses and not taking good care of the basketball."
Willowbrook advances to Tuesday's regional semifinal and a date with the sectional's second seed, Glenbard East.
The two schools, about 2 miles from each other, are rivals, adding an extra element to the second-round matchup.
"This was a good step. We got a little rust off today," Stubblefield said. "It should fall over to tomorrow and hopefully we can pull that W off as well. It should be a good game."