Naperville North learns it can win without Welch
Naperville North's boys basketball team put a bow on its DuPage Valley Conference championship.
After wrapping up the title last week, the Huskies capped the regular season with Wednesday's 58-50 DVC victory over visiting Neuqua Valley.
Even with the champion decided, though, Wednesday's matchup still provided drama. The Huskies played without Loyola-bound Tom Welch because of a lingering back issue, while Neuqua Valley again played without injured standout sophomore John Poulakidas.
Both players' status is up in the air heading into next week's regional play.
"We have a very young team, obviously, with only two seniors," said Huskies junior Riley Thompson, who scored a game-high 21 points. "It's kind of hard to think that we'll have to fulfill that role next year, but I think we're doing a nice job this year. We're working hard every day and we'll continue to work harder."
The youth in the game definitely stood out as three juniors and a sophomore started for Naperville North (17-11, 7-1) and two juniors and a sophomore started for Neuqua Valley (13-17, 3-5). The Huskies never trailed after jumping to an 11-3 lead midway through the first quarter.
Neuqua Valley narrowed the deficit to 23-22 with five minutes left in the third quarter on a Sentwali Nalls 3-pointer, but the Huskies answered with an 11-0 run highlighted by 3-pointers from Liam Kim, Thompson and Netzah Aldana - the Huskies' lone senior player with Welch out.
"They just kept making shots," said Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton. "We couldn't guard them tonight. They were just so much better than us in every aspect of the game. We couldn't stop them."
The Wildcats' pressure defense paid dividends in the fourth quarter as they trimmed the margin to 5 points. Naperville North made 8 of 10 free throws in the final 90 seconds to keep its distance.
Balanced Naperville North received 15 points from Myles Barry, 9 points from Grant Johnson and 8 points and 8 rebounds from Aldana. Nalls had 16 points and Connor Davis scored 9 points for Neuqua Valley.
"We feel really fortunate to win," said Huskies coach Gene Nolan. "Neuqua is a really good team and they're so sound. I'm really proud of our kids playing without Tom."
Twitter: @kevin_schmit