Huskies smile while beating West Chicago

After dropping close games to Glenbard West, Hinsdale Central and Wheaton North by losing leads deep into ballgames, something had to give for Naperville North.

It did Friday night as the Huskies kept the lead and beat West Chicago 52-39 on the road. The Huskies (7-10, 1-6) led 38-28 in the fourth quarter when the Wildcats scored a bucket, cutting the lead back to single digits. Instead of wilting under pressure, Naperville North built the biggest lead of the game.

First it was Joe McNicholas scoring off an inbounds play, getting fouled and completing the three-point play, then it was Emerson Beck draining a a 3-pointer and Matt Hasse scoring and getting fouled.

All that happened in a 44-second burst, doubling that 8-point lead to 16.

"That sequence was huge for us," Naperville North coach Mark Lindo said. "We hadn't had the eye of the tiger for a while, and I saw it in us during that stretch. We had that look in our eyes. Instead of losing a lead, I saw five kids on the floor with smiles on their faces. It was good to see."

Another aspect that the Huskies dominated was defense. In the third quarter Naperville North held the Wildcats to 2 points on 1-of-12 shooting using a swarming 1-3-1 zone. Not only did that zone disrupt the shooting in that third quarter, it also bottled up Tyler Griffith, who scored 11 points for the game.

"They played great defense tonight," West Chicago coach Kevin Gimre said. "They especially did a great job against Tyler. We told him there is nothing wrong with getting the ball in the post and kicking it back out when he gets double-teamed. We rushed shots, took bad shots and missed open shots tonight. North played a really solid game tonight."

The Huskies also used a giant size advantage to win the battle of the boards 25-15. The Wildcats' tallest player is Griffith at 6-foot-6. Naperville North starts three players who are at least 6-5.

"We knew we were going to have a size advantage," 6-9 center Matt Hasse said. "We talked about getting the ball inside and we were able to do some things. We also did a good job limiting them to one shot while we did a good job getting extra shots on the offensive end."

Hasse scored a game-high 15 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. West Chicago (8-11, 2-5) had solid outings by both Chad Driscoll and Charles Jacques as they each pitched in with 9 points apiece, with all the points coming by way of 3-pointers.