Boys basketball: Despite Naperville North’s big second half, Waubonsie moves closer to outright DVC title
A road win is nothing to take for granted, but this year’s special Waubonsie Valley team knows it will need to do better than it did in the second half Friday night at Naperville North.
Sure the 26-1 Warriors prevailed 66-57 and moved a step closer to claiming their second straight DuPage Valley Conference crown. Illinois State-bound Tyreek Coleman had 26 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists, and 6-foot-5 Moses Wilson had 24 points and 6 slam dunks.
But a defense that has allowed 41 points a game this season allowed the Huskies to explode for 41 points in the second half alone on Friday. Naperville North (17-13, 3-6) trailed 35-16 at the half before scoring 21 points in the third quarter while making things a little too interesting for the Warriors, who have a rugged week ahead that includes Warren on Saturday, Kankakee on Monday and then a battle with DeKalb next Friday in a game to decide the DVC title.
“We weren’t really focused enough in the second half. We weren’t talking on defense and allowing easy drives and kickouts,” said Wilson. “They they had too many open shots.”
Thankfully for Waubonsie Valley, the visitors had a fast start that featured a 23-point first quarter in which Wilson and Coleman combined for 15 points. The senior duo have played together a lot the last three seasons and it shows.
“It comes natural. We’re a good offensive team that moves the ball around well. Tyreek moving the ball around makes things easy,” said Wilson, who tallied 9 points in the fourth quarter to help hold off the Huskies. “I just cut and he puts it up there perfectly for me.”
Coleman put up big numbers like he does most nights but he knows the Warriors have to be better on defense if they want to achieve their lofty goals.
“Tomorrow we’ve got to come out with a better mindset. We can’t have the mental lapses and mistakes we had on defense tonight against them [Warren] or they’ll take advantage of it and we’ll lose by 30,” Coleman said. “We just have to be better at stacking stops. We want to go and fix things, but a win is a win. We don’t take wins for granted.”
Naperville North opened the second half with a reverse layup from Max Steele and followed that up with a 3-pointer from Will Harvey. After scoring in single digits in each of the first two quarters, the Huskies surprised the Warriors with back-to-back quarters with at least 20 points.
Steele finished with a team-high 17 points and Carson Loughlin and Miles Okyne also scored in double figures while Harvey added 6 points and 7 rebounds.
“Credit to Waubonsie, they're so good,” Huskies coach Gene Nolan said. “They’re so disciplined and they execute so well. We got down but I was proud of our kids for battling back against a team that is just an elite level operation. I mean they’re really good.”
While Naperville North got its offense clicking in the second half, they just couldn’t slow Coleman and Wilson.
“Tyreek is special,” Nolan said. “He’s as good a talent that I’ve seen in several years. He is just so skilled and so smooth and never gets rattled. When the ball’s in his hands great things happen.”
Waubonsie Valley coach Andrew Schweitzer will not argue with a victory, but he knows this group of players has a great opportunity ahead of themselves if they don’t lose focus.
“I never take a win for granted,” he said. “It’s more so, I know the type of group we have and I know the type of things they can accomplish. I want it better for them. Credit to Naperville North. They came out in the second half and they executed stuff, but we stopped talking on defense. We were allowing straight line drives. To be honest with you we were clowning a little bit.
After that first half they had a lot of confidence and they let that confidence go to their head a little.”