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Griffin, Naperville North meet Fremd's challenge

Naperville North's Baylor Griffin made sure his team was up to the challenge Sunday afternoon at the Conference Challenge held at Northside Prep in Chicago.

Griffin led the way as the Huskies improved to 13-10 by defeating Fremd 54-44 in boys basketball.

Griffin, a 6-foot-3 senior, scored a team-high 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in the nonconference win.

"I give my teammates a lot of credit for my points," said Griffin. "With our rotation of the ball, I was in the right place at the right time, and I was open."

Griffin's basket with 5:19 left in the first quarter gave the Huskies a 4-3 lead, and they never again trailed.

Griffin scored 6 points in the first quarter as Naperville North led 17-12. Guard Jelani McClain had 5 of his 15 points in the quarter.

Naperville North used 9 straight points by Griffin to start the second quarter and open up a 26-12 lead with 4:06 left in the first half.

Fremd (15-8) pulled within 26-17 following a putback bucket from Brian Dompke (8 points), but the Huskies again eased away to a 30-20 halftime lead.

"We did not have the effort to win the game in the first half," said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski. "The second half we played better. But they doubled us up on rebounds, and that hurt us."

Payton Kim had a strong second half for the Vikings, scoring 9 of his 11 points. Xavier Williams led the Vikings with 14 points and 7 rebounds.

Fremd narrowed the gap to 40-32 as the third quarter ended. Kyle Sliwa's 2 free throws with 6:19 left made it 42-37, but Fremd could get no closer.

Zachary Tuxhorn, who was saddled with foul trouble in the first half, scored 7 of his 9 points down the stretch to help Naperville North secure the win.

"We have had trouble in the third quarters of games," said Griffin. "We had to be patient and work for good shots. We were able to drive on them by passing the ball as well as we did."

Naperville North coach Jeff Powers was impressed with Griffin's work.

"You saw Griffin motor," said Powers. "His rebounding was infectious, and that led to others getting involved. He does that off the court as well. He has a 4.0 average, he gave a speech to younger students about the danger of drugs ... he gets everyone in the program, down to the managers, involved in pasta parties. He's a coach's dream. He's a leader and a role model.

"I have to give a lot of credit to our bench," Powers said. "When we had several players in some foul trouble, they stepped up and gave us quality minutes. McClain had a nice consistent game getting others involved with his 6 assists. It was a nice win for us over a quality program like Fremd's."

WW South 43, Prospect 41: Wheaton Warrenville South pulled out a squeaker in the other game at Northside Prep on Sunday afternoon.

The Tigers led 32-23 going into the fourth quarter but a 16-7 run by the Knights (11-11) forced the overtime at 39-39.

Eric Rasch led the way for Wheaton Warrenville South with 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. Josh Ruggles scored 11 points and Will Granberry 8 as the Tigers improved to 10-16.

Kyle Beyak led Prospect with 19 points, including four 3-pointers. Sophomore guard Frankie Mack scored 10.

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