Naperville North finishes strong
All season long Naperville North has been trying to prove something.
“We wanted to get up there in the DVC, we wanted to be one of those top teams,” junior guard Shannon Bushman said.
It’s been a long time coming, but the Huskies can say they finally crashed the top half of the DuPage Valley Conference, finishing in fourth place after Saturday afternoon’s 56-44 victory at Glenbard East.
“It’s really nice,” Huskies coach Jacquie Discipio said. “We’ve got nothing to complain about. We’re peaking at the right time. We’ve got a lot of momentum going into regionals next week, so life’s pretty good for us.”
Saturday’s win was the third straight for the Huskies (12-14, 8-6) and lifted them past West Chicago in the league standings on the last day of the regular season.
“Since Plainfield North (a 54-34 win Tuesday) we’ve just been on a streak, and I think we’re all just really excited going into the playoffs,” Bushman said. “We needed this win for a little bit of a spark going in.”
Naperville North hosts a Class 4A regional next week, opening as the sectional’s 14th seed against No. 19 West Aurora on Monday night for a chance to play No. 3 Benet on Tuesday. Discipio knows what it would mean to the program to get two more wins.
“A ton,” she said. “If we can get to .500, if we could win a couple of games at the regional, I would be ecstatic. We are super-happy. Getting over that 10-win hump was awesome. We won Senior Night, we haven’t done that in years. This is a group that’s setting some history for Naperville North, because we haven’t had this many wins in a long time.”
Saturday’s game looked at the start like it would be easy. The Huskies led 17-2 late in the first quarter before the Rams (4-20, 1-13) started to rally.
“Our energy was never fully there, but I think at the beginning we wanted to get everyone in, we wanted everyone to get playing time,” Bushman said. “It was one of those games where, it’s Saturday, we’re a little tired. But we pulled it out.”
“We had a great start,” Discipio said. “We had a lull there, kind of lulled ourselves to sleep a little bit in the second quarter. We finished strong at the end. We picked it up. We did what we needed to do to finish off the regular season and get ready for Monday.”
The Rams cut the lead to single digits but couldn’t keep it there.
“We just kind of handled that (first quarter), and once we settled in it might have been even scoring for the rest of the game out, other than that first quarter,” Rams coach Nicole Miller said. “I just tell them to keep battling back.”
They did, led by senior post player Michaela Stranski, who proved tough to stop down low. She finished with 27 points and 13 rebounds.
“She’s just a strong post inside,” Miller said. “She’s really hard to stop when we get her the ball. They got her the ball. She had some putbacks. She was hitting the boards well also so she had a really nice game. An all-around great game.”
“Our only defensive problem was containing (Stranski),” Disicipio added. “She did a really good job. That was a little troublesome.”
Emily Koch led Naperville North with 15 points and added 5 steals. Bushman scored 14 points and also had 5 steals. Jenna Jatczak added 12 points, and sophomore guard Zoe Swift finished with 10 points and 6 assists, leaving the game midway through the third quarter after rolling her ankle.
“She was was lacing up her shoes, saying she’s ready to go back in,” Discipio said of Swift. “I said absolutely not, we need you for Monday. I think she’s going to be OK.”