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Naperville North makes its move in third quarter

If one wants to know the reason behind Naperville North's 47-44 senior night victory over visiting Wheaton North on Friday, just look at the big arrow pointing right at the third quarter.

The Huskies (14-10, 6-3 DuPage Valley Conference) shot 6 of 7 from the field during the third and outscored the Falcons 17-4. And although Wheaton North (18-5, 6-3) tied the game in the fourth, it never led from the first few minutes of the second half on.

"We didn't play good during the second half the last time (a 53-40 loss at Wheaton North on Jan. 16) and we knew we had to play better and have a better night," said Huskies guard Jelani McClain. "In the third quarter we had to buckle down and play defense, and our offense came off that."

The Huskies might have dominated the third quarter and led for most of the second half, but Wheaton North didn't go away. The Falcons' Rowan McGowen, who opened the fourth quarter with a 3-point basket, hit another one with just more than three minutes left in the game to tie it at 41. Naperville North's Cam Hardy, who scored a game-high 18 points, was left all alone to make a layup at the 2:23 mark. He struck again with 1:20 left to make it 45-41. A free throw by Nick Traversa, who led the Falcons with 14 points, pulled his team to within 45-42 with 51 seconds on the clock.

McClain then sank a couple of free throws before Luke Anthony hit net with 1.7 seconds remaining for Wheaton North's final basket.

"I thought it was a bad second half overall, and certainly the third quarter wasn't good," said Falcons coach Dave Brackmann. "We got away from what we did offensively in the first half. There were a number of bad shots and we weren't good defensively. Naperville North's shot chart had a lot of layups."

The evening started out well for Wheaton North. It led 18-13 after the first eight minutes on 7-of-14 shooting from the field with Jake Heggeland, who was second on the Falcons with 13 points, scoring 8 during the span.

Wheaton North cooled off shooting in the second quarter, but so did Naperville North with the Falcons having just an 8-5 edge in points but leading still at halftime 26-18.

The Huskies opened the third quarter on an 11-0 run and led 35-30 after it.

"We knew we weren't closing out their 3-point shooters," said senior Baylor Griffin, who finished with 13 points. "We could not allow them to get the offensive rebounds they were getting. We had to box out more."

Naperville North closes the regular season with its home finale against Glenbard North. It won't be the last time the team will face the Panthers this season; the teams will meet March 2 in a Class 4A West Aurora regional quarterfinal.

The Falcons head to Lake Park on Wednesday before embarking on the postseason.

"We'll rally. We'll battle back. It's a tough loss. But it won't affect us going forward," Brackmann said.

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