WW South erases halftime deficit with 23-0 third quarter
As Mike Healy's Wheaton Warrenville South squad made their way into the locker room at halftime trailing archival Wheaton North by nine points inside of a standing-room-only crowd at Neibch Gym Friday, he approached his unit with a straight forward response on what his team's strengths were that could allow them to work its way back into the contest.
Which one of his senior starters, forward Colin Moore, drew upon.
"Coach said it wasn't a pretty first half but we know who we are as a team," Moore said. "Go back to our roots. Play hard defensively. We know defense is going to keep us in games (and) offensively we've got to keep going at it. That's Tiger Basketball."
And thanks to their return to those roots, WW South used a 23-0 third quarter to catapult them to holding off the Falcons 48-46 Friday night to keep their front-runner status in DuKane Conference play at 4-0.
"It feels great," Moore said. "A scoreless third quarter. You come to these games (with) packed out gyms. Wheaton Warrenville South versus Wheaton North. Coach told us in the locker room the past 15 (games) it's Tigers 13-2. We just know that it's our town, we got to do what we got to do."
Moore (team-high 19 points) helped the Tigers (8-1 overall) not only get back into but gain control of the game when he tallied 9 of his 11 third quarter points wrapped around a Braylen Meredith drive that gave them a 27-25 lead with 3:27 left in the period that kept WWS on top to stay. A Meredith layup (12 points) led to 12 more points that put them up 39-25 heading into the fourth.
WW South led 43-33 on Moore's steal, drive, and layup with 5:04 remaining when North (5-4, 2-2) made its comeback. The Falcons went on a 10-3 tear capped by Jack Speers' (game-high 20 points) sixth trey of the night that pulled them within 46-43 with 56 seconds left in regulation.
After a missed free throw, the Falcons would get two cracks in the closing seconds only to have Meredith block a Troy Janiak attempt and a follow-up by Speers go for not.
"We played one really unbelievable quarter, two really bad ones and then the fourth we were OK," Healy said. "We made some mistakes, but we made some big plays and we made some tough shots at the end, too."
Hudson Parker added 11 for Wheaton North.
WN girls 62, WW South 45:
In the night's opening attraction, sophomore Sara Abdul's 17 points paced the Falcons (7-6, 1-2) to their first DuKane victory. Sophomore Emily Troia led the Tigers (2-8, 0-3) with a game-high 20.
Retiring WW South coach Rob Kroehnke was honored by his former school where in 1990 he began his teaching and coaching career with a special commemorative photo of his first team that he coached at North. He currently stands at 387-247 in his 22nd season at the helm.