Glenbard North hands Naperville North first DVC loss

After celebrating for a handful of minutes, Glenbard North’s boys basketball team recognized the challenge ahead.

Now that the Panthers sit atop the DuPage Valley Conference standings, the trick will be staying there in what’s sure to be a wild second half of the season.

Glenbard North grabbed a share of first place in the DVC with Saturday’s 61-53 win over Naperville North in Carol Stream. The Huskies (14-5, 7-1) and Panthers (10-6, 7-1) are a half-game ahead of West Aurora (15-3, 6-1) with everyone else in the DVC under .500.

“It feels great because one of our goals was to win a conference championship,” said Panthers senior forward Josh Fleming. “We’ve gotten this far by taking it one game at a time and being humble and hungry.”

Handing Naperville North its first DVC loss wasn’t easy after the Huskies burst to leads of 8-0 and 13-5. After taking its first lead on 10 of Fleming’s game-high 23 points, Glenbard North grabbed the lead for good at 17-15 on Sterling Hightower’s bucket at the end of the first quarter.

That’s not to say the Panthers eased their way to victory despite building a 10-point second-quarter lead and a 51-43 advantage with 3:17 left in the game. Naperville North stormed to within 52-51 with 1:49 left on a 3-pointer by Matt Stacho, a pair of free throws by Derek Westman and a 3-pointer by Westman.

Fleming, however, converted a three-point play to push the lead back to 56-51. The Panthers scored the game’s final 5 points to seal the victory.

“I’m proud of our boys the way they came back and fought back,” said Naperville North coach Jeff Powers. “It comes down to shooting free throws and keeping guys in front of you, and we didn’t do a very good job of that today.”

Stacho led the Huskies with 20 points while Mike Keane added 12 points and Westman scored 10 points. Glenbard North’s Ryan Krueger scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter and grabbed 11 rebounds.

The Panthers get their first chance to stay in first place in the DVC on Tuesday in their third matchup of the season against Glenbard East.

“We were ready to play,” said Glenbard North coach Joe Larson. “The guys gave a great effort out there, played great defense tonight. We really wanted this game.”