Naperville Central defense stops Glenbard North
To say that the Naperville Central defense picked up after halftime might be a bit of an understatement.
Facing a 5-point deficit after allowing 23 points to Glenbard North, the Redhawks yielded just two field goals over the final 16 minutes and pulled away to a 44-29 victory in the DuPage Valley Conference girls basketball opener for both teams.
"In the second half we were communicating more," junior guard Mia Lakstigala said. "We were calling out switches so we wouldn't leave anyone open. We stopped their easy baskets."
Lakstigala scored 6 points in the third quarter as part of a 27-4 run that began before halftime. After Naperville Central (4-2, 1-0) jumped out to a 12-8 lead to begin the contest, Glenbard North had responded with a 15-3 spurt of its own.
"We were more patient on offense and we talked about getting the ball inside," said senior guard Hannah Swarm, who led all scorers with 15 points, including 6 in the fourth. "We found openings inside which helped."
Freshman Lucy Schmid had two of those easy baskets in the third, the latter of which gave the Redhawks the lead for good at 26-25 with 1:23 showing on the clock. Erin Moran and Swarm then followed with 3-pointers.
"This definitely feels great," Swarm said, "especially after our first tournament where we went 3-2. We know this conference is going to be very tough, especially with three new teams coming in. With a young team we want to start off strong."
Schmid had 7 rebounds and Lakstigala pulled down 6.
"This was huge for us with a capital H," Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said. "I couldn't be happier with how we played."
Glenbard North (5-2), which entered off a tournament championship, was led by the 10 points of both Jennifer Deegan and Zakiya Newsome. Deegan also contributed 8 rebounds and Lauren Lee had 6.
"It was a tale of two halves," Glenbard North coach John Chamberlain said. "I wouldn't say everything went well in the first half but enough did. I just wasn't comfortable with us executing on both ends. And in the second half, they got looks they wanted and we did not. It was a combination of turnovers and we looked like we didn't have a lot of energy."