Danyella Mporokoso’s double-double helps Waubonsie Valley down Aurora Central Catholic

AURORA — Waubonsie Valley’s Danyella Mporokoso went into halftime knowing that she wasn’t having the best night.

While the Warriors maintained a comfortable 18-point lead over Aurora Central Catholic through one half of play, the junior was only shooting 4 of 15 from the floor.

She knew she had to change her approach at the basket.

So when she went back out onto the floor, she knew she needed to shift her focus back to the basics.

“Coming into the second half, I really tried to focus on hitting as many shots as I could,” Mporokoso said. “That just helped me kind of find my shots. And then my teammates also were stepping up as well.”

And it worked.

Mporokoso finished the night with 25 points, with 14 coming in the second half, along with 10 rebounds for a double-double to help lead the Warriors to a 62-38 victory over the Chargers to extend their winning streak to 12 games.

“She’s just huge for us,” Waubonsie Valley coach Brett Lowe said. “She can score at all three levels, she can create shots for herself and is always asking how she can improve at halftime. She always takes that information to heart and gets it done, and that’s something I’m very proud of her for.”

Waubonsie Valley (22-1) set the tone for the game early, especially from beyond the arc. The Warriors had four of their nine triples of the night come in the first quarter, which helped them build up a 19-4 lead.

“We’ve been trying to be consistent with starting the game out with a lot of energy and shooting well,” Lowe said. “We wanted to make sure that we come out of the gate and get a jump.”

After that, the focus for the Warriors moved to securing the defense with their full-court press to make sure the lead would not dip to single digits for the rest of the game.

Along with Mporokoso’s 10 rebounds, the Warriors' starters picked up 16 steals in the game before getting subbed out for the second team with 3:30 left in the game.

“We knew we had to come in here and play aggressive,” Mporokoso said. “And we were really trying to focus on crashing boards, boxing out and snatching the ball in the air.”

The loss was the first for Aurora Central Catholic (22-3) since Dec. 26 in a game against Dixon.

Despite the early struggles, ACC coach LeVada Smith felt his team, especially senior Riley Cwinski (17 points), was able to adapt and work around the full-court press throughout the middle of the game.

“Dealing with that team that pretty much has five guards on the floor that can shoot 3s, it becomes challenging to say the least,” Smith said. “I’m not disappointed in our effort though. We had our opportunities and they just didn’t fall. And when you face a team that can score, you’ve got to make those shots.”

The road heading into the postseason doesn’t get any easier for the Chargers, as a victory over Fenwick on Monday in the opening round of the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference tournament would slate them to face St. Ignatius, who was ranked tied for second in Class 3A in the latest AP Poll.

“We’ve just got to make sure that we focus on the little things,” Smith said. “One of our keys for every game is just trying to do the little things. If we constantly do that, we’ll continue to go far, and hopefully will continue to have success.”

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