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Naperville North scores big - and praises its defense

After exploding for 54 second-half points, you might expect Naperville North to rave about its offense.

But instead, after Friday night's 81-60 defeat of Wheaton Warrenville South, the Huskies were most proud of their defense. The hosts limited Tigers' sharpshooter Josh Ruggles to just 4 field goals on the night - and used their best third quarter "ever" to pull away in the second half and claim the DuPage Valley Conference victory.

"We came out with good intensity. Coach (Jeff Powers) told us we had to play good defense and that's exactly what we did," said Huskies guard Cam Hardy, who did all he could to try and slow down Ruggles, who three nights earlier hit eight 3-pointers while scoring 38 points.

Ruggles did finish with 23 points after making good on 12 of 14 free throws, but the hosts had just too much offense on a night when Baylor Griffin scored 17 of his 22 points in the big second half and Zachary Tuxhorn knocked down five 3s while tallying 20 points off the bench.

Wheaton Warrenville South led 17-14 after one quarter and 29-27 at the half as Eric Rash and Will Granberry combined for 15 points in the first two quarters with several strong moves inside.

But Naperville North opened the second half with a pair of foul shots following a technical foul that was called after a skirmish at the close of the first half. After Tuxhorn hit both free throws, Tyler Buschman scored inside and Naperville North was on its way to a 24-12 third quarter that it followed up with a 30-point fourth quarter.

"We've been focusing a lot on our third-quarter offense and defense," said Griffin, who made 8 of 12 shots from the floor. "We've been outscored in the third quarter almost every game. But it all started on defense. Cam did a great job guarding him, and when he got tired I took a turn on him."

Huskies coach Jeff Powers, when asked if Friday's third-quarter effort was one of the team's better ones this year, responded: "Ever. Ever. We've been struggling in the third quarter so this was a very good third quarter for us."

It was a total team effort that lifted the Huskies (12-10, 5-3). While Griffin and Tuxhorn were combing for 42 points, Hardy and 6-foot-6 Deon Merrill were getting it done on the defensive end. Guard Jelani McClain, meanwhile, commanded the offense and finished with 10 pints and 4 assists.

"It was great team defense all the way around and we had Deon Merrill with a couple blocked shots and big rebounds," Griffin said. "I think defense won the game."

Tigers coach Mike Healy, on the other hand, feels his team's defense needs to play better than it did on Friday.

"We've got to get better defensively. We just didn't get enough stops," Healy said after his team dropped to 9-16 overall and 2-6 in the DVC. "Offensively, I thought we did good things. We talked about getting the ball inside and Will and Eric did a nice job finishing around the basket. We attacked the rim a lot. We just need to get stops."

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