Panthers rattle off win at W. Chicago

The stage was all set for a barn-burner.

The home team had just nailed a 3-pointer to get within 6 points and the home crowd was roaring with close to six minutes left to play Friday night at West Chicago.

But visiting Glenbard North was not rattled. In fact the Panthers calmly countered with an inside bucket by Alex Smith and, even through the Wildcats answered with a basket from Ryan Karg, the visitors were on their way to a 10-4 run that sealed a 58-43 DuPage Valley Conference win at West Chicago.

Panthers coach Joe Larson was thrilled with the way his team responded in the crunch, but also with how Glenbard North played the entire night on defense. The Wildcats (3-4, 1-1) failed to score in double digits in any of the first three quarters while the visitors built a 36-25 lead heading into the fourth.

"They made a run to cut it to 36-30, but I thought we kept our poise there, which was nice, especially being on the road," Larson said. "Overall our effort defensively was outstanding from the opening tip on."

Glenbard North (2-4, 2-0), which has now won two straight DVC games after opening the season 0-4, jumped ahead 10-2 Friday behind a pair of inside baskets by Evan Watkins and two scores from Smith. The Panthers' lead was 27-16 at the half as Watkins tallied 9 of his team-high 13 points and center Reggie Davis added 6 points.

But West Chicago hung around just enough to make things interesting, due in large part to the strong play of Chad Driscoll and Karg. The two combined for 26 points on the night, 24 of which came in the second half, including the 3 from Driscoll that made the score 36-30 before the Panthers took off.

"We didn't panic. We just stayed composed," said Watkins, who finished the night with 13 points, 10 rebounds and a pair of steals. "We focus on good defense and not allowing second shots and we did a good job of that tonight."

The Panthers also did a fine job of sealing the game from the free-throw line. They made good on 14 of 19 foul shots in the game, but went 12 for 13 in the second half.

"Glenbard North did a great job of taking us out of what we wanted to do," said Wildcats coach Kevin Gimre, whose team shot just 7 for 20 in the first half. "They put a lot of pressure on us and we just didn't handle it."

James Fleming had a solid game with 12 points and 2 steals and was one of seven Panthers to tally at least 6 points in the game.