Downers North defeats Glenbard South

Downers Grove North’s boys basketball team may be feeling under the weather, but at least the Trojans didn’t play sick on Tuesday.

Despite struggling through a lack of rhythm and fluidity, Downers North still led wire-to-wire in a 62-53 nonconference victory over visiting Glenbard South.

A run of the flu bug jolted Downers North (3-4) last week, especially 6-foot-6 sophomore center Dave Edwards, who battled a 104-degree temperature. Edwards clearly wasn’t back at full strength, but his post presence led to 8 points and 12 rebounds as the Trojans dominated the boards.

Glenbard South (1-4) narrowed a 13-point third-quarter deficit to 48-43 on a Chaun Rickette bucket with 5:40 left in the game, but that’s as close as the Raiders came. An 11-2 run by the Trojans sealed the win.

“That win’s big,” said Trojans senior Nick Norton, who scored a game-high 16 points. “We were playing to their speed when we needed to slow it down. We needed to keep playing our basketball.”

Three-pointers by Norton and Deivis Skirgaila, who hit four 3-pointers while tallying 14 points, helped spot the Trojans to an early 16-6 lead. Tim Marshall’s basket in the opening seconds of the second quarter pulled Glenbard South within 16-13, but Downers North responded with a 7-1 run.

“We talked about coming out flat before the game, but then we still came out flat,” said Raiders coach Wade Hardtke. “They jumped on us early and then we were playing catch-up the rest of the game.”

Rickette led Glenbard South with 14 points, while Alex Jeske added 12 points and John Marks 10 points.

“We had a chance to pull away and Glenbard South did a great job,” said Trojans coach Jim Thomas. “It kind of frustrated us, but I think we closed the game strong in the fourth quarter.”

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