It’s no secret: Naperville North piling up wins
It’s turning into one of the area’s worst-kept secrets, but Naperville North’s on a roll.
The Huskies’ boys basketball team hammered visiting Glenbard North 65-46 in Friday’s DuPage Valley Conference matchup to claim its third straight win and eighth in 10 games.
Not that the Huskies are anxious to brag about it.
“Don’t tell anybody because we want to keep sneaking around,” said Naperville North coach Jeff Powers. “People don’t know, but now we’ve got Matt (LaCosse), and (Matt) Stacho and (Kyle) Lindberg are learning how to play varsity basketball. So now we’ve got eight, nine guys that are capable of putting in some quality minutes. That’s really helping.”
Naperville North (11-8, 6-2) remains tied for second place in the DVC with West Aurora, which comes to Naperville on Tuesday. If the Huskies play like they did on Friday, they’ve got a great chance at sitting alone in second place.
A 10-0 run, spanning the end of the first quarter and start of the second, pushed the Huskies to a 30-16 lead. Sparked by Jovonn Griffin’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the first quarter, Naperville North never again let the Panthers (7-10, 3-5) closer than 10 points.
Naperville North’s shooting didn’t allow a Glenbard North rally. The Huskies, after 10-of-11 first-quarter shooting from the field, made 62 percent of their shots for the game.
The Panthers, meanwhile, buried themselves with 10 of their 16 turnovers in the first half. They made only 2 of 11 free throws for the game.
“Turnovers and free throws were a big part of the game for us,” said Panthers coach Joe Larson. “Having said that, I thought Naperville North really played well. They shot the ball real well, and it wasn’t our night tonight.”
Naperville North went 10 players deep in the first half, and nine scored. LaCosse finished with 16 points while Jon Mengel scored 7 of his 10 points in the first quarter. Griffin and Lindberg tallied 9 points apiece.
Glenbard North’s Anthony Keener hit four 3-pointers in scoring a game-high 20 points. Josh Fleming, who added a pair of 3-pointers, scored 10 points.
“We had a good week of practice, plus with the last few wins we were able to catch momentum coming into this game,” Mengel said. “Also confidence from beating them last time (76-62) helped lead to a good victory today.”