Glenbard South’s rally in fourth falls short as Waubonsie Valley wins Neibch Classic

WHEATON –Waubonsie Valley held off a furious Glenbard South fourth-quarter rally to win the Bill Neibch Holiday Classic championship for the second year in a row Saturday, 52-48 at Wheaton North.

Trailing 41-28 early in the last frame, the Raiders whittled the Warriors’ lead to five points with three minutes left to play. But each Glenbard South attempt to pull closer was answered with a Warriors bucket to keep Waubonsie Valley in front.

To make the night even more memorable for Waubonsie Valley, tournament officials named Danyella Mporokoso as the tournament MVP for the second year in a row. Also, coach Brett Love notched his 124th victory to become the winningest Warriors girls basketball coach.

“We just stayed resilient. We didn’t have our best shooting game, but we kept ourselves in the game,” Love said. “We are undersized, and they had a couple of good posts. We just stuck it out. Every time they scored, we came back and scored ourselves.”

“In the first half, we started off slow. We didn’t score a lot,” Mporokoso said. “In the third quarter, we got the momentum and played better defense.”

An Arianna Garcia-Evans (12 points) layup early in the last frame extended the Warriors’ lead to 41-28. The Raiders closed an 11-3 run with a Brooklynn Moore basket to make it a 44-39 game. Moore led Glenbard South (14-2) scorers with 23 points.

Lily Newton’s layup with 2:30 left to play widened Waubonsie Valley’s (14-1) lead back to seven.

Kate Bruhl’s two free throws with 1:42 on the clock were answered by a Mporokoso layup. The junior also scored 23 points. Mporokoso responded with another bucket to two Moore charity tosses.

Bruhl scored the last basket of the game with 5.3 seconds left for the final score.

Glenbard South led 9-7 after the first quarter. The teams traded the lead during the second quarter. A Mporokoso layup tied the game just before the end of the second quarter.

Two quick baskets put Glenbard South ahead 28-23 at the 6:20 mark of the third quarter. The Warriors scored 13 unanswered points for a 36-38 advantage at the end of the frame.

“In the third quarter, they started hitting shots and their defense cranked up. As a result, we struggled,” said Glenbard South coach Eric Daca. “I thought our girls fought hard. I’m proud of how they played. Unfortunately, today we came up a little bit short.”

For most of the game, Waubonsie Valley’s defense stymied Glenbard South’s effort to work the ball inside to Moore.

“We just played to our strengths. We play tough, try to move fast and speed the game up,” said Love.

In addition to Mporokoso, Newton and Garcia-Evans were named to the all-tournament team. Newton, a senior, was also named to last year’s squad.

Officials tabbed Moore and teammate Rheayanna Ferguson all-tournament honors.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20241228/boys-basketball/girls-basketball-waubonsie-valley-survives-glenbard-south-to-win-neibch-crown/