Naperville North doesn't let its guards down

Shannon Bushman knows to keep her head up whenever Zoe Swift has the ball.

It could be coming her way in a hurry.

“Zoe and I have been playing together for a couple years now,” Bushman said, “and I love playing with her. We work really well together.”

Naperville North's guards were clicking in Tuesday's season opener. Bushman scored 18 points and Swift had 9 points, 6 assists and 4 steals in the Huskies' 53-32 win over Metea Valley in Aurora.

“Shannon and Zoe, they stole the show,” Huskies coach Jacquie Discipio said. “It was exciting to watch.”

Naperville North also won its first game last year but ended up 7-20 for the season. Swift, a freshman on that team, has no interest in a repeat.

“Last year wasn't the best season,” Swift said, “and we're tired of it. We're going to go out hard this year and win.”

The Huskies started slow Tuesday, not scoring until a Bushman basket almost three minutes in. They pulled ahead 13-10 by the end of the quarter despite making just 5 of 19 shots.

“The first quarter I felt like the only thing I could hear or see was the rim,” Discipio said. “I knew we had to get through some first-game jitters.”

Swift and Bushman got going midway through the first quarter to turn the tide. Swift hit a pull-up jumper, and Bushman converted a three-point play to give the Huskies the lead for good. Swift then stole the ball and fed Bushman with a pretty look-away pass for a layup in transition.

The pattern of Huskies steal, Huskies layup the other way repeated itself on several occasions.

“Zoe and Shannon just took off. That's their kind of game,” Discipio said. “This year Zoe controls her speed a lot more. She finds girls that are open before they even know they're open, she's that fast.”

Emily Koch added 10 points and 5 rebounds and Jenna Jatczak 10 points for Naperville North, whose 7-2 run to end the half pushed the lead to 30-19.

Bushman scored 13 of her 18 points in the first half.

“We're always the type of team that likes to push the tempo,” Bushman said.

After a strong start Metea Valley looked like a team playing its first varsity game. The only Mustang with any varsity experience is sophomore Bria Walker, who played for Naperville North last year. She scored 6 points against her ex-teammates.

Anna Petersen had 11 points and 9 rebounds to pace Metea.

“As much as you preach to them that the varsity level is a different pace, I think they needed to be thrown into it to believe it,” said Metea coach Kris Kalivas, who previously coached at Waubonsie Valley for six seasons. “If we can learn from this game then it was worthwile. We're going to take baby steps here, hopefully take some steps forward tomorrow in practice and hopefully Friday take a step forward in a game.”