Luca Carbonaro, senior-laden Wheaton Warrenville South takes down Batavia

WHEATON — It was a surreal moment for Wheaton Warrenville South senior Luca Carbonaro walking off the court.

With 30 seconds left in a game against Batavia on Friday night, Tigers head coach Mike Healy made the move to sub off Carbonaro and the four other seniors on the court for the final time at home.

And as he was high-fiving the incoming players and giving Healy a hug to a sound of thunderous applause, the realization hit him.

“People would tell me all the time ‘Don’t blink, it flies by so quickly,' but I didn’t really understand it until I walked off the court there,” said Carbonaro, who’s been on the Tigers' varsity roster for the past three seasons. “It was just kind of emotional, and I wish I more games here. But it’s been a a great ride.”

But before being subbed off for the final time at home, the senior made sure to leave it all out on the court.

In the Tigers' final regular-season home game of the year, Carbonaro put up 15 points, including 10 in the second half, and nine rebounds to help the Tigers' senior team to a 41-29 victory over the Bulldogs.

While Carbonaro struggled early from the floor, WW South (21-7 overall, 10-2 DuKane Conference) relied on the hot hand of Connor Butler in the opening frames of the contest. The senior went 3 of 4 from 3-point range on the night, with all of his makes coming in the first half.

“I just had a lot of confidence,” Butler said. “I just felt good and things were going in. I’ve just got to give thanks to my coaches and teammates for that.”

While Butler usually comes off the bench for the Tigers, Healy decided to put him into the starting lineup for the game. And safe to say, the head coach did not regret his decision.

“There’s nobody that put more shots on the shooting gun over the summer than Connor did,” Healy said. “He hasn’t shot extremely well this season, but we all knew he had it in him, so it was awesome to see him have some success and get what he deserves.”

But after taking a 22-10 lead into halftime, the offense mainly turned to Carbonaro, who used a shifty selection of shots and football-like passes to teammates like Brady Goken (13 points) to keep the offense rolling in the second half.

“Having a game like that has just sort of become an expectation now,” Carbonaro said. “Just getting those extra opportunities and doing hard things is just what my team needs me to do. And I’ve got no problem with going in their and doing whatever my team needs me to do to get the win.”

Batavia (12-16, 4-8) was held to under 30 points in a game for the second time this season, with the Bulldogs putting up 26 points in a loss to Waubonsie Valley back in November.

But even with the low-scoring output, Bulldogs head coach Jim Nazos still felt good about how his team played, especially on the defensive side, and felt that it was a hard-fought 29 points.

“They (WW South) don’t break down on defense too much, so we had to fight for those 29 points,” Nazos said. “They had some timely offense coming from their defense. They’re a good team. But I still think that there’s a plan for us that I’m optimistic about where we can get to. I thought we did some good things out there.”

Leading the way for the Bulldogs was Jax Abalos, who put up all 15 of his points in the second half and added 10 rebounds for a double-double. Along with him was senior Josh Kahley, who was the only Bulldog to hit multiple 3-pointers on the night to give him eight points.

“Josh is coming along,” Nazos said. “He defends really good and he’s starting to hit his shots. With people like him, there’s a shot of us going forward here going into the regional.”