Vine's 25 points help Wheaton North hold on

Success rarely follows a straight line, especially for young teams.

Wheaton North gave up an early 17-point lead Tuesday night before holding on to defeat DuPage Valley Conference rival Glenbard East 49-43 in Wheaton.

"I was hoping we wouldn't get content," said Wheaton North coach David Eaton, whose team won its fifth straight game. "We've been playing well the last couple of games and been on a pretty good streak. There's always that chance that you're starting to expect it, and I told our kids, don't expect anything. I want them to come out and have to work for it. It's never an easy night in the DVC."

"We just came out thinking about a conference title," said Falcons senior Paige Fowler, who scored 9 points in the first quarter, 12 for the game. "We hadn't had a conference game in a while. And coming off our win on Saturday (against St. Ignatius at the McDonald's Shootout) we wanted to push it out. I had a good start, I guess."

The 15th-ranked Falcons (10-7, 5-1) watched a 21-4 lead evaporate, with the Rams (8-11, 1-6) taking their first lead since 4-3 when Alison Scott scored midway through the third period to make the score 30-29.

Then junior point guard Fantasia Vine took over. She hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key as the Falcons and Rams stayed even.

"The third quarter was just a back-and-forth, lead-change game," Rams coach Nicole Miller said. "... It was a really, really good game from our standpoint from the second quarter on."

Finally the Falcons took the lead back for good with 4:35 left in the game on a Fowler 3-pointer.

A Vine layup followed to get the Falcons some breathing room, and they remained in control from there.

"We kind of overlooked a game we shouldn't have," Fowler said. "It definitely showed in the second quarter. We let them back in the game. We just lost sight of what we wanted to do."

The Rams' comeback overshadowed a 25-point performance by Vine, who scored 16 in the second half.

"I was really happy she scored that many because without her it would not have been that close," Fowler said. "She bailed us out, definitely."

Senior forward Olivia Trefilek came off the bench to lead the Rams with 12 points.