Naperville North tops Wheaton North in OT
The Naperville North boys basketball team has confidence in its abilities.
And despite its game not being sharp for a good portion Friday night at Wheaton North, its faith in its talent paid off as the Huskies turned on the afterburners offensively in the fourth quarter and in overtime to win 69-65 in the DuPage Valley Conference opener for both teams.
The Huskies (3-2, 1-0) outscored the Falcons 20-12 in the fourth quarter and just edged Wheaton North 19-15 in the extra time.
“The team knows that if we stay battling in the fourth quarter, we could pull it out,” said junior Derek Westman who hit two baskets late in the fourth quarter, including a 3-point shot with 30.6 seconds left to tie the game and send it into OT.
In overtime Anthony Rehayem, one of four Naperville North players to score in double digits with 11, scored the first bucket of the period and the team never relinquished the lead.
Later on, Wheaton North’s Matt Biegalski cut the Huskies’ lead to 65-62, with just under 17 seconds to play. But with under a minute to go, the Falcons had been forced to start fouling quite a bit and had to in the remaining time after Biegalski’s shot.
Naperville North finished 27 of 40 from the free-throw line. But made up for some cold free-throw shooting early on with a 23-of-26 performance in the fourth quarter and overtime. Chris Mullen, who scored a team-high 19 points, was a 12-of-14 free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“We’re a really good shooting team and we knew they would start falling for us,” Mullen said. “I kept trying to be open and get the ball. I wanted to shoot those free throws.”
This was the second overtime game for the Huskies so far this young season.
“All this experience will help,” said Huskies coach Jeff Powers. “We have a lot of seniors, but they haven’t played. To come out of here with a win, is frosting on the cake.”
Westman had 16 points and David Sinickas 14 to round out Naperville North’s top scorers.
Wheaton North senior guard Ryan Jordan was game-high scorer with 28. The Falcons (1-4, 0-1) led 15-13 after the first quarter and 25-21 at halftime with the help of 10 points from Jordan. His 7 points in the third helped his team lead 38-30 after three quarters. Throughout the night, he showed his ability to drive to the basket and move aside anyone who was in front of him.
“Ryan did a very good job getting to the rim in transition. He’s getting better every game,” Falcons coach Jim Nazos said.
Sam Otto was the other Falcon scoring in double digits with 14.
“Naperville North did a good job of staying with things when they were down.
“We’ll come back tomorrow and play a JV game and practice just as hard on Monday. It’s a long season. We’ll fine-tune things and keep going,” Nazos said.