WW South surprises Waubonsie Valley in OT
Jaylen Brown knew he had a shot, but he didn't know if his Wheaton Warrenville South teammates could get him the ball.
Brown got the ball and the Tigers got the win, as the senior Indiana Wesleyan football recruit drilled the game-tying 3-pointer to force overtime, and the Tigers upset visiting Waubonsie Valley, 49-43, in Wednesday's nonconference boys basketball game in Wheaton.
"I knew the circumstances and my buddy Parker (Brown) just had the ball and was pushing it and I was wide open on the wing," Jaylen Brown said. "I felt confident, and I always feel confident in my ability and my shot no matter what, if it's going in or out, so I just pulled it and it felt good. I'm happy it went in (with 3.7 seconds left), really, really happy."
Wheaton Warrenville South (3-1) didn't surrender any scoring in the overtime until Tyler Helbing's basket as time expired.
The Tigers received a big putback from Tyler Fawcett in the opening minute of the overtime and made their free throws the rest of the game with Parker Brown making 4-of-4 in the final 40 seconds and Jaylen Brown making a pair.
"Waubonsie is a great team and we just knew if we kept playing our defense that our defense would turn to offense," Jaylen Brown said. "We knew we were going to make a comeback. Our team is very resilient and we're always going to play until the end of the game, triple zeros on the clock."
Waubonsie Valley (1-1) took its biggest lead of the night at 39-28 after Isaiah Smith's baseline jumper with 4:29 remaining in regulation but could not maintain it.
The Warriors struggled at times maintaining possession, committing 20 turnovers.
"We turned the ball over too many times," Warriors coach Jason Mead said. "We didn't play well enough to win. I think we need to get a lot more disciplined because that exposed our lack of being solid with the ball when it's a very physical (game)."
Jaylen Brown's 3-pointer, followed by Fawcett's dunk right out of the fourth quarter mask timeout break and a 3-pointer from Micah Kim, pulled the Tigers to within 39-36.
"They feed off of chasing and the last two games we've been struggling with turnovers so we kind of beat ourselves with that," Warriors senior Ben Schwieger said. "We both had our runs and I think it was just them speeding us up. We've got to take care of the ball more, be strong with it and don't let them rip us. It was a tough game, a lot of bumping and you know you just got to work through that."
Jaylen Brown and Fawcett each scored 13 points and Parker Brown added 10 for the Tigers. Schwieger led all scorers with 14 points and Tyler Helbing contributed 10 points and Justin Starks had seven for the Warriors.
A small group of fans were able to attend the game, but they were a vocal bunch.
"We're lucky to have fans out and they showed up tonight," Jaylen Brown said. "They were awesome. It's great to play basketball and have some feeling of that competitiveness back for sure."