Naperville North still undefeated in DVC

Naperville North needed to shrug off a slow first quarter to stay undefeated in DuPage Valley Conference play.

Behind three straight second quarter 3-pointers from David Sinickas, along with 16 of Max Lewis’ game-high 18 points scored in the second half, the Huskies had more than enough fire power to outlast a feisty Wheaton North effort, winning a 66-56 contest to move to 7-0 in conference play.

Both teams struggled to find any kind of rhythm in the first quarter as Naperville North (14-4, 7-0) shot 3 of 8 from the field while Wheaton North (5-12, 1-7) was 1 of 11. The two teams combined for 18 turnovers in the game’s first 11 minutes.

It wasn’t until Sinickas’ first of three straight 3-pointers at the 5:10 mark of the first second quarter that the shooting woes ended.

“That’s the sign of a good team when they’re able to find the open man,” Naperville North coach Jeff Powers said. “Max then got on fire and the guys kept finding him. He did a great job of executing out there tonight.”

Wheaton North’s Matt Biegalski scored seven of his team’s final nine points before halftime, which ended with a tip-in by 6-foot-11 Andrew Zelis off of Biegalski’s missed free throw, cutting the Huskies’ lead to 25-20.

Both teams traded baskets regularly throughout the second half as the Huskies took an 11-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

Lewis came off the bench and scored 11 of his team’s 19 fourth-quarter points. His 3-pointer with 4:45 left put Naperville North up 59-45, its biggest lead of the night.

We started off slow, but once we started moving the ball around, we started hitting our shots,” Lewis said. “I felt I brought some energy when I came into the game.”

A putback by Zelis and a baseline 3-pointer by Jaylen Howze cut the Naperville North lead down to 59-50, which was as close as the Falcons would get the rest of the way.

“(Naperville North) did a really good job of getting their shooters open and hitting shots when they needed to,” Wheaton North coach Jim Nazos said. “We can’t turn the ball over as much as we did and expect to win. I think there’s effort and we’re competing. I just think we need to fine tune some of the things we did.”

Lewis was one of four Naperville North players in double figure scoring along with Sinickas, Derek Westman and Matt Stacho.

Zelis led Wheaton North with 16 points, while Sam Otto scored 14 and Biegalski added 12.