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Trend favors Wheaton North

Wheaton North's boys basketball team held Naperville Central scoreless for the entire second quarter ... and still trailed heading to halftime.

Bad sign or good trend?

Turned out to be the latter for the Falcons, who continued their stout defense in the third quarter to take the lead for good in Friday's 42-39 DuPage Valley Conference victory over visiting Naperville Central.

The Redhawks (14-11, 4-4) closed the game on a 6-1 run over the final two minutes, 34 seconds and had shots to tie it on consecutive possessions in the final half minute. Their 3-point attempt in the waning seconds, however, went off the mark to preserve Wheaton North's victory.

The Falcons (18-4, 6-2) remain a game behind Lake Park atop the DVC standings with two to play. The Lancers, who beat Glenbard North on Friday, host Wheaton North in a DVC finale on Feb. 25.

"Every team in the DVC is good and anything can happen," said Falcons senior guard Nick Jordan. "There can be upsets so every game has to get your full attention. You've just got to go into it ready to fight."

Naperville Central burst to a 19-6 lead behind 10 of Matthew Meier's game-high 17 points, but then the Falcons laid down the hammer defensively. They forced 5 turnovers and the Redhawks missed all 6 shots from the field while going scoreless the second quarter.

Even though Wheaton North still trailed 19-15 at the half, the tone was set. The Falcons held the Redhawks to 8 third-quarter points and used a 9-2 run to build a 34-27 lead heading to the fourth.

Jordan scored 11 third-quarter points and tallied all 13 of his team-high points in the second half.

"At times we struggle to score and other times we make it look easy," said Redhawks coach Pete Kramer. "The second half the kids really fought back and gave us a chance to win. We had our chances and the ball didn't bounce our way."

Nate Dahl scored 11 points for Naperville Central while Nick Traversa and Jake Heggeland had 9 apiece for the Falcons.

"Obviously we weren't looking to fall behind 19-6, but this team's got a lot of heart," said Wheaton North coach Dave Brackmann. "I knew we'd get back in the game at some point. I didn't necessarily think we'd give up zero points in the second quarter and get back into it fairly quickly. But this team works really hard."

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Images: Naperville Central vs. Wheaton North, boys basketball

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