Girls Basketball: Warriors coast in Williford’s return

Updated: December 3, 2011 11:14PM

Buoyed by the return of starting point guard Becky Williford from a knee injury, Waubonsie Valley’s girls basketball team remained unbeaten on the season Saturday.

Williford played about 10 minutes in her return and helped limit Waubonsie’s turnovers in a 46-33 nonconference win at Naperville Central.

Williford scored six points as she eased her way back into varsity action, and after turning the ball over a combined 55 times in wins over West Aurora and South Elgin, the Warriors held it to 15 turnovers Saturday.

“I felt great,” Williford said. “I hung in there longer than I expected. I was concerned with my conditioning and moving side to side, but I had to try to ignore it. I tried as hard as I could to not think about it, and it helped a lot.”

Williford made her debut at the 2:09 mark of the first quarter to a nice applause and she helped the Warriors (6-0) take a 20-15 lead into the half.

In the third, it was another Waubonsie senior — Erica Jordan — that took over as the Warriors extended their lead. She scored nine straight points as part of a 12-0 run to start the half that pushed the lead to 32-15.

Foul trouble has plagued Waubonsie a lot this season, but that wasn’t a problem Saturday. With all of the Warriors’ key players able to play extended minutes — in addition to Williford’s return — Waubonsie was never threatened in the second half.

“We pride ourselves on our physical defense, but when we get taken out of that, that’s when we have a problem,” Waubonsie coach Kim Connell said.

That defense helped limit Naperville Central star center Emma Donahue to 13 points and five rebounds, shooting only 5-for-12 from the field. The Redhawks (4-4) were unable to take advantage of the defense collapsing on Donahue, however. They shot only 2-for-17 from three-point range.

“They did a good job of limiting Donahue,” Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said. “I thought we just missed our outside shots. If they’re going to do that, we have to make shots. We just didn’t do a very good job of doing that.”

Now that Williford is back, the Warriors can settle into their roles for the season. Freshman Shannon Hohman — who is more of a shooting guard — filled in admirably for Williford, but she will be able to slide into her normal role now, giving the Warriors added depth.

“We’re easing Becky in,” Connell said. “Right now, it’s just getting her in game shape. Shannon has done a great job filling in. Now we can put Shannon in a spot where she’s more comfortable. Once we get everybody back and healthy, we should have some more depth.”

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