There was an air of hope coming from the Wheaton Warrenville South side coming into Wednesday’s DuKane Conference finale against Batavia.

With the two teams both trailing Glenbard North in the conference standings, both teams were hoping that a win would give them a share of the conference title were the Panthers to lose their finale to Wheaton North.

And after the Tigers pulled off a 41-29 victory, as well as learning their crosstown rival pulled off the win, there was plenty to celebrate in the visiting locker room.

“Going into the game, we knew that we had to worry about Batavia first, but we just had to hope that Glenbard North would lose to Wheaton North,” junior David Showman said. “We had to hope and manifest. And once we found out, we just went crazy. It was a great feeling.”

It marks the Tigers (20-10 overall, 11-3 DuKane) first conference title since going back-to-back in 2021-22 and 22-23. The win proved to be even more special for Tigers coach Mike Healy, who celebrated his 400th career victory as well with the win.

“You can’t really draw it up better than that, can you?” a drenched Healy said. “It’s all about the kids though. We focused on getting to 20 wins and beating every team in the conference. This league is as deep and competitive as it’s ever been, and we’ve been through some tough games. But I’m just so proud of them.”

After a slow start to the contest where the Tigers trailed 6-4 after a quarter of play, the offense picked up speed in the second quarter with sophomore AJ Rogers scoring 10 of his 16 points in the quarter alone to make it a 23-13 contest by halftime.

“We had that slow start and when we got to the bench, Healy got on us a little bit,” Rogers said. “We had a really good week of practice, so we weren’t expecting to come out like that, but we did. So in the second quarter, we stepped it up and I led the way.”

After coming out of the locker room for the second half, the Tigers relied on Showman to keep the Bulldogs at bay. The junior finished the game with a team-high 18 points with 11 of them coming in the second half.

“After losing the first game in double overtime, practices got more intense and we got way more aggressive,” Showman said. “We handled ball pressure more and got a lot tougher. We applied that to our game and we got super tough, and that’s how we’ve been winning.”

“Those two were both really tough in the post for us, and our guys found them,” Healy said. “I thought we missed some layups in that first quarter, but we were a lot better at finishing in those final two and a half quarters.”

A win would’ve given Batavia (20-9, 10-4) its first-ever DuKane Conference title. But on a night celebrating the senior class, the Bulldogs fell short of the final goal, snapping a nine-game winning streak in the process.

“Wheaton South just executed really well with getting open looks and sinking layups,” Bulldogs coach Jim Nazos said. “They put us down big and we had to play faster and different. We took a gamble to try to get back into it, and it just didn’t work.”

The Bulldogs were plagued with a cold night of shooting, especially from behind the 3-point line where they finished 2 of 23. Senior Brett Berggren was the only player to shoot over 50% on the night, finishing with 13 points.

“It always helps when the ball goes in, and you’re going to have nights like that,” Nazos said. “When you do, you’ve got to compensate in other ways like with offensive rebounds or steals. South just enticed all of that too, so they did a good job with that.”

And with the Bulldogs, a No. 4 seed in the Class 4A Bartlett Sectional, having the chance to see the Tigers in a fight for a regional title, Nazos is hoping that they’ll be ready if the situation arrives.

“These guys are all aware of it,” Nazos said. “We’ll get things and learn, and more importantly hope that we get to that point.”

https://www.shawlocal.com/my-suburban-life/2026/02/19/wheaton-warrenville-south-claims-share-of-dukane-conference-mike-healy-reaches-400-wins-with-win-over-batavia/