Naperville North goes from down and out to victorious

For a game that could have gone either way, at a key moment it looked like it wasn't going to go Naperville North's.

The Huskies, however, rallied from a 6-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter to beat host East Aurora 56-50 in Saturday's nonconference boys basketball matchup.

East Aurora (5-12) unleashed a 12-1 run, featuring 9 straight points by Adrian Smith, to take a 47-41 lead with 3:50 left. Baylor Griffin answered with 8 of his 20 points and Cam Hardy blocked a shot and knocked down a huge 3-pointer to power Naperville North's comeback.

"They were very aggressive, but we got the timeout in the fourth quarter and we were even more aggressive," Hardy said. "Good team win."

The Huskies (10-8) scored 13 straight points and held the Tomcats scoreless for nearly three minutes as they grabbed control.

"We're playing better, but it's frustrating," said East Aurora coach Wendell Jeffries. "It's just one of those things. It's almost like we're snakebit."

Naperville North led for most of the game, extending its advantage to 5 points several times. Mitch Lewis scored at the end of the third quarter and Griffin added a putback at the start of the fourth to put the Huskies ahead 40-35.

Leading 50-47 with 1:21 left, Naperville North had to withstand a barrage of East Aurora scoring chances. The teams also swapped turnovers before Griffin's three-point play put the Huskies safely ahead 53-47 with 17.7 seconds left.

"This was an important game for us on the road," said Griffin, who also pulled down 11 rebounds. "We wanted to come out strong, and we rallied together defensively. We just came together fully as a team in the fourth quarter."

Eight players scored for Naperville North, with Lewis scoring 9 points, Zachary Tuxhorn adding 8 and Winston Elston tallying 7 points. Smith scored a game-high 23 points for East Aurora.

"I think it was our defensive effort," Huskies coach Jeff Powers said of the late rally. "That seemed to make the difference for us."

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