Boys basketball: Wheaton North rallies, denies Glenbard North outright DuKane championship
Wednesday’s game in which Wheaton North hosted Glenbard North on senior night might not have been the last time the DuKane Conference rivals will play each other this season.
Both teams will participate in the Class 4A St. Charles North regional beginning Feb. 25 and could face off in that regional’s championship game two days later.
For now, the Falcons will cherish their come-from-behind 63-60 victory that denied an outright conference championship for the Panthers, who had to settle for sharing the title with Wheaton Warrenville South after its win over Batavia on Wednesday.
Wheaton North (17-10, 6-7) trailed by nine at halftime but came back to cut the deficit to three by the end of the third quarter and one early in the fourth. Glenbard North (22-7, 11-3) then went on a mini-run that appeared would be enough to clinch the victory, but that wasn’t the case.
The Falcons got back within three and finally tied it at 57 on Henry Schlickman’s sixth 3-pointer and the last of his game-high 25 points. A putback dunk by Ben Gillmar (17 points, four assists) with 1:18 left gave them a late lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“We never give up,” Schlickman said. “Our team is relentless. We never give up, and it's always just a game at the end.”
Lamari Carpenter (15 points, four assists) hit a late 3-pointer to make the score 62-60 and keep the Panthers alive. Johnny Clayton then split two free throws, keeping it a one-possession game in the final seconds.
After Glenbard North brought the ball up court, there was confusion as to whether it had just called a timeout when it didn’t have one left. The officials conferred and determined that wasn’t the case.
Oturo Redento (19 points, eight rebounds), who won these teams’ previous meeting with a tip-in at the buzzer, missed a last-second 3 that would have forced overtime, ending the game and a second half in which the Falcons outscored the Panthers, 40-28.
“We've been talking about it all year about finding a way to win games that are tight,” Wheaton North coach David Eaton said. “And I thought they did an unbelievable job really stepping up defensively and turn that game around and got us some easy buckets in transition. And then ‘Schlick’ hit that big 3 to get us going.”
Matt Welch scored 19 points for Glenbard North, most of which came on four first-half 3s, but he was kept out of the scoring column in the fourth. He also had five assists, second to George Schager’s game-high seven, and four steals.
“We gotta do a better job of taking care of the ball and being strong and tough and not (having) live-ball turnovers lead to and-ones or layups for them,” said Panthers coach Kevin Tonn. “And they hurt us in that last three minutes with that one.”