Naperville Central gets bounce-back victory over Wheaton North

At the back end of a doubleheader DuPage Valley Conference weekend, Naperville Central's boys basketball team needed fresh legs and a win.

The Redhawks got both Saturday at Wheaton North.

Behind a huge effort from its bench, Naperville Central forged a split of its weekend games with a 62-50 DVC victory over the host Falcons.

Saturday's team effort proved especially important after the Redhawks' loss on Friday to Glenbard North. Naperville Central (10-4, 2-3) went deep into its bench to get back on track against the Falcons (4-10, 1-4).

The Redhawks received 44 points from their bench, including 16-of-18 shooting from the line. Fifteen free throws came in the fourth quarter as Naperville Central maintained a double-digit lead.

"It's a team effort," said Redhawks forward Josh McMillan, one of the key bench players. "The starters came out and they started strong, and it's basically about us coming in and helping them out, staying positive and staying strong."

McMillan, Ryan Antony, Dylan Pauga, Mike Blaszceyk, Mike Gruenthal and Nick Lopez all provided strong minutes off the bench. Lopez wound up scoring 6 of his team-high 15 points from the line in the fourth quarter. Antony added 13 points and Blaszceyk scored 11 points.

After Wheaton North tied the game 25-25 midway through the third quarter on a Sam Otto 3-pointer, the Redhawks responded with a 21-4 run to seize a 46-29 lead early in the fourth quarter.

"Our team was just battling the whole game," Lopez said. "We started off slow and in the second half we just came out firing."

Wheaton North's best moments came early in the second quarter when the Falcons stormed to a 15-9 lead on Mike Biegalski's 3-pointer. Lopez, however, scored 7 points in the final three minutes of the half to put the Redhawks ahead 21-17 at the break.

Otto and Biegalski each scored 15 points for Wheaton North, which suffered its second DVC loss of the weekend.

"Naperville Central did a good job," said Falcons coach Jim Nazos. "Some of their best players didn't play that well, and they did a great job having other players step up and do things to kind of take over the game.

"We're a team still finding its way," he said. "That's the best way to put it."