Naperville North tips West Aurora
Jovonn Griffin never had a doubt.
As he stepped to the free-throw line with 1.7 seconds to play in a tied game, Griffin knew he would win it for Naperville North on Wednesday night in Naperville.
Swish.
Naperville North 52, West Aurora 51.
“I was thinking, I’m making this,” Griffin said as countless passers-by patted him on the back. “We fought hard for this game, we wanted this game, and we believed we could beat them because we came up short the first time we played them.”
The game was tied at 43 after three quarters and again at 51 when West Aurora junior Juwan Starks hit a 3-pointer with 3:53 to play.
With 1:26 left West Aurora called a timeout and opted to wait for one shot. Three timeouts later the Blackhawks tried to inbound the basketball under their basket and lost it out of bounds with 8.1 seconds to go.
Naperville North got the ball to Griffin, who drove down the left sideline and was fouled shortly after crossing midcourt. His first shot in the 1-and-1 was perfect. He missed the second intentionally.
“We finally got a win over a good team in our conference, not just the bottom of the bracket,” said Griffin, who finished with 14 points. “We wanted to show we could play with the big boys. So we finally got the win, we’ll take it how we can get it.”
“Ever since the beginning of January we’ve had this one circled on our calendar,” Huskies senior Matt LaCosse said. “We call it the Winter Classic, and this was the championship of the Winter Classic. We won it, so it’s huge for us.”
The victory puts Naperville North (13-9, 7-3) in a tie for second place in the DuPage Valley Conference with West Aurora (12-8, 7-3). First-place Glenbard East can clinch a share of the league title with a win Friday against Glenbard North.
Starks led all scorers with 20 points, 14 of them coming in the first half. Teammate Jonathan Dennis added 12 points and 8 rebounds.
LaCosse and Nick Buege led Naperville North with 15 points apiece, the 6-foot-6 LaCosse scoring down low despite the Blackhawks’ plans to stop him.
“Whatever it was, it didn’t work,” West Aurora coach Gordie Kerkman said of those plans. “We did a very poor job of defending him. You’ve got to give them credit too, they did a very good job of getting the ball to him too. Six of one, half dozen of the other. But I was very displeased with our defense, not only the guys that were guarding him but the help that they were supposed to get wasn’t there.”
Buege got his points outside, making three 3-pointers in the first half.
“We had to decide do we want to go outside or inside,” Huskies coach Jeff Powers said, “and we tried get them in a little foul trouble inside.”
It worked. The Huskies had a huge advantage at the free-throw line, where they made 17 of 22. West Aurora was 1 of 3 at the line.