Flanigan, Glenbard North defeat Wheaton North
Senior Chip Flanigan completed an impressive second quarter by the Glenbard North boys basketball team Friday at Wheaton North with a one-minute defensive highlight reel.
The 6-foot-5 Flanigan first stole the ball at the top of the key and dribbled the length of the floor for a thunderous dunk.
When the Falcons turned a defensive rebound into an apparent wide-open layup moments later, Flanigan seemed to leap out of nowhere to block the attempt.
“He’s always going to chase down blocks. It’s so fun,” Glenbard North senior point guard Jeremiah Fleming said. “It just gets us all going, too. With the dunk and then he did that (block) — that really got us going.”
The Panthers proved tough to stop as their 25-point second quarter gave them control for a 70-52 victory in Wheaton that leaves them 6-1 at the halfway point of the DuPage Valley Conference race.
Flanigan led Glenbard North (13-4) with 23 points and also had 6 rebounds and 5 steals. Fleming scored 15 points and senior Kendall Holbert had 11.
Wheaton North (9-8, 3-4) suffered its fourth straight loss, three to DVC front-runners.
“We’ve got people that can score inside and outside. We do it almost every game, a little run,” Flanigan said. “(The dunk and block) were both just from my defense. I really pay attention to my defense. I like to get steals. I like to get in passing lanes. I don’t like to give up open layups.”
The Panthers opened the second quarter by making 10 of 14 shots with four of their seven 3-pointers for the game. They rebounded three of the missed shots for baskets.
Tied 13-13 entering the quarter, the Panthers were ahead 38-24 at the half and led by at least 13 points throughout the second half.
”We’ve scored a few around (25 points) for sure this year, but that’s a good quarter in any high school game,” Glenbard North coach Joe Larson said.
“We like to get some easy buckets in transition, but I thought a lot of it was fueled from our defense. We got some steals, some rebounds. (And) we share the ball. We get guys open shots because of that. I think all of our guys are able to see the floor pretty well.”
Jackson scored the Panthers’ first two baskets of the second quarter. Flanigan later had seven straight points during a 12-4 run and Fleming added back-to-back 3s for a 36-24 lead.
“Everybody was telling me to keep shooting so I just kept shooting,” Fleming said. “I’ve got to give credit to my teammates. They got me the ball. They’re always looking for me.”
Despite playing injured, Wheaton North senior Andrew Slivinski had 21 points with four 3s and 8 rebounds. Senior reserve Nathan Houlihan had 12 points, all in the second half.
“I thought we had a good game plan coming in. We just didn’t do it well enough and it wasn’t for a lack of effort. They were just the better team tonight,” Wheaton North coach Dave Brackmann said.
“(Glenbard North has) a number of weapons. Flanigan was really tough to handle and then guys hit big shots around him. They’re tough to stop in transition.”
The Panthers had five of their nine steals in the first four minutes. The Falcons rallied as Slivinski and freshman reserve Luke Anthony hit back-to-back 3s to initially tie the game 11-11. Jake Heggeland scored inside to keep the game deadlocked entering the second quarter.
Anthony was promoted from the sophomore team to help overcome six Falcons not dressing for the game for various reasons.
“(Slivinski is) probably more banged up then he lets on and he’s toughing it out,” Brackmann said.