Wheaton North whips Naperville Central 67-43
Brooke Olson banked in a 30-foot jump shot to end the first half, turned to the Wheaton North bench and shrugged.
It was that kind of day for the Falcons.
Wheaton North led from start to finish, ripping Naperville Central 67-43 in the matchup of DuPage Valley Conference leaders in Wheaton.
"It did seem like everything was going our way," Olson said. "We came out ready to go."
Wheaton North (12-5, 5-1) has won five straight games, four by double figures, and won six of seven since its only conference loss at West Chicago Dec. 16.
"The kids played fantastic," Falcons coach Dave Eaton said, "and I'm excited for them because it was a big game. We've talked about how far they've come. This was their chance to prove how good they really are."
The Falcons scored the first 5 points of the game, and two Lauren Graham jumpers touched off a 10-0 run that pushed the lead to double figures for good at 15-3. Olson's 3-pointer extended the lead to 34-14 at half.
"We were terrible, they played good and that's what happens," Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said. "We just let their momentum snowball until we were too far out of it."
Madison Goudy scored 16 points, Graham 14 and Paige Fowler had 12 points and 9 rebounds, 5 offensive. Fantasia Vine rifled a pair of gorgeous passes in transition for Graham scores in the third quarter.
"We've started to focus more on taking it one game at a time," Fowler said, "where before we were looking ahead more than maybe we should have been."
Naperville Central's 43 points matched a season-low. Alex Pokorny scored 11 points and Claire Fleming 10 for the Redhawks (8-8, 3-2). Leading scorer Kelley Hendrick was held to 4 by the combined defensive effort of Lauren Hoffman, Olson and Sarah Carlson.
"We talked about defending Kelley all week long," Eaton said. "We have three great defensive players and we said we're going to rotate three people on her because she is such a dominant force. We wanted to keep her in check the best we could."