Naperville C. takes Wheaton North's best shot

Wheaton North sent its Falcons in waves at Naperville Central on Thursday night.

The Redhawks just waved the Falcons off.

Naperville Central continued its hot streak, winning 52-43 in Wheaton for its seventh consecutive victory and 11th in its last 13 games, taking a physical, hotly contested matchup that saw Wheaton North substitute in fives throughout.

"Every team in our league brings something to the table that they do better than everybody else," Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum said. "North plays intense. If you can't match their intensity, they're going to steamroll you."

But with a frontcourt of 6-footers, the Redhawks had a distinct height advantage, and the Falcons tried to counter it.

"I like what our game plan was," Wheaton North coach Dave Eaton said. "We wanted to get up and down and push the ball a little bit. We figured we couldn't let them play a half-court game. With their height, they've got skilled height kids. They've got kids that finish well around the basket. They've got kids that play well off of each other, so we couldn't let them just pound it inside."

The Redhawks (17-8, 11-1 DuPage Valley Conference) made sure they never got steamrolled, leading most of the game.

"We knew they were going to come out with a lot of intensity so we knew we had to match it, and in matching it we could execute and we could keep our heads level and we could finish," Redhawks junior Victoria Trowbridge said.

"Last time we tried to push it a little bit and it came up the fourth quarter and we had nothing left, we just went with our starters too long," Eaton said of his substitution pattern. "We've never done this before, but it was something that I thought, we're pretty deep but we're inexperienced with our depth, so I said let's give it a shot. We've got nothing to lose."

Trowbridge scored 15 points to lead the Redhawks and added 9 rebounds.

"Victoria Trowbridge is a lot more active offensively," Nussbaum said of the Redhawks' winning streak. "She's just doing a lot more things. People give (6-foot-3 center Emma) Donahue a lot of attention; they should give Donahue a lot of attention or she's going to burn them. Victoria has had a lot of freedom to move, and she's becoming a lot more of a force offensively."

Donahue added 13 points and 4 blocks, and Jamie Cuny had 6 rebounds and 5 assists and 2 blocks.

"Jamie hasn't scored a lot for a while, but she's got those long arms," Nussbaum said. "She gets some rebounds, she's able to make some passes. She had a real nice pass to Victoria right there early in the fourth quarter. So she's doing a lot of things that aren't necessarily showing up on the scoreboard, but I think she's doing a lot of nice things for us."

Point guard Reilly Stewart led Wheaton North (12-14, 5-7) with 9 points.