West Aurora continues perfect DVC start
Naperville North coach Jeff Powers tried to slow down West Aurora standouts Jontrell Walker and Roland Griffin with a triangle-in-two defense after the duo combined for all 18 of the Blackhawks’ first-quarter points.
But Tommy Koth and Matt Dunn made the strategy backfire when they were the focal points of another West Aurora surge.
The Blackhawks blistered Naperville North with 64 percent shooting from the field, raced to a 24-point lead at halftime and remained flawless in DuPage Valley Conference boys basketball play with a 77-53 victory Friday night in Aurora.
Walker, who led all players with 22 points, and Griffin, who continued his exceptional play this season with 21 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, were limited to 2 points each in the second quarter.
Koth, though, hit back-to-back 3-pointers, and Dunn hit three straight pull-up jumpers in the paint.
All four players finished in double figures for West Aurora (11-3, 6-0).
“Tommy just knocked down some open shots, and I was able to some mid-range shots,” said Dunn, who finished with 10 points.
Koth concluded his second straight double-digit effort with 12 points.
The Blackhawks never trailed after Walker opened the game with a 3-pointer, quickly followed by four in succession by Griffin.
The latter showcased his economical game, hitting all 5 of his second-half shots.
Griffin missed 5 of his 14 field-goal attempts, but in one scintillating possession grabbed three of his own misses before finishing the fourth attempt.
“I try to get very close-in baskets,” said Griffin, who had multiple college coaches scouting him. “I try to get to the free-throw line. Coach (Gordie Kerkman) tells me to get to the basket. We had real good balanced (scoring) tonight.”
Naperville North (9-7, 3-3) revived its misfortunes after trailing 41-19 at the intermission.
The Huskies’ duplicated their entire first-half output in the opening six minutes of the third quarter when Zach Tuxhorn drained a 3-pointer.
“We challenged the kids to play with pride, forget about the score,” Powers said. “(West Aurora is) the best team we have played this season. That’s no excuse (for our first-half performance). We just didn’t compete.”
‘We came out lackadaisical in the second half,” Dunn said. “We needed to start playing defense again.”
But the Blackhawks’ defensive lapses after halftime were more or less remedied by their collective shooting.
The team converted 29 of its 45 attempts from the floor.
Walker had three 3-point possessions for West Aurora in the second half, and Griffin was unstoppable on the low block.
“They’re both unbelievable basketball players,” Powers said of the Blackhawks’ duo.
West Aurora post Carleton Williams scored only 3 points but blocked an equal number of shots and grabbed 6 rebounds.
Jayson Winick scored 11 of his team-high 13 points in the opening half to lead Naperville North.
Anthony Rehayem, Baylor Griffin, Michael Laurenzo and Chris Gajcak combined for 30 more points for Naperville North.