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First things first for Wheaton North

When a team wins a postseason game, thoughts turn to the next opponent. The Wheaton North boys basketball squad realizes that but just wanted to savor Tuesday's 61-45 win over East Aurora in a Class 4A West Aurora regional semifinal just a little bit.

"It's a first time in a while (reaching a regional final). And we just got our 20th win and we want to focus on that. Then we'll focus on the regional final," said senior Nick Traversa, who led the Falcons (20-5) with 17 points and 9 rebounds.

Wheaton North, seeded third in the East Aurora sectional, will face the winner of Wednesday's semifinal between sixth-seeded West Aurora and 11th-seeded Naperville North, in Friday's 7 p.m. regional final.

The Falcons haven't faced the regional hosts so far this season and split the season series 1-1 with the DuPage Valley Conference rival Huskies.

"I'm excited to see (Wednesday's semifinal) game," said Wheaton North coach Dave Brackmann. "This is a great opportunity. Over the summer we talked about creating opportunities for ourselves. Whoever we play for the regional final is a great team."

But before the Falcons could talk about a regional final, they had to deal with the 19th-seeded Tomcats (9-19). East Aurora beat Waubonsie Valley the night before in a regional quarterfinal and were within 5 points of Wheaton North late in the third quarter before the Falcons stepped on the gas.

Wheaton North led 13-8 after the first quarter and 29-20 at halftime. Traversa hit for a 3-pointer for the first points of the third period, and Luke Anthony, who scored 14 points, added a free throw to put their team up 33-20.

Then a basket by Lawrence Stewart started an 8-0 run by East Aurora to cut the Falcons' lead down to 33-28.

"We got into a little bit of a rut in our shot selection for 3s early in the third quarter. But then we started to attack the rim and that opened up the 3s," Brackmann said. "We've seen East Aurora play a couple of times and we knew the team could be explosive. They are not very big, but they are very athletic. Our kids did a nice job responding when (the Tomcats) had a run."

The Falcons closed out the third quarter on a 12-4 run to lead 45-32 with the help of 3-pointers from Nick Jordan and Traversa and a 2-pointer from Jake Heggeland. Jordan finished with 13 points, Traversa hit all three of his 3-pointers during the third quarter.

Attention to passing has been crucial to Wheaton North's success this season and Tuesday was no exception.

"We've definitely improved with our passing. We were a prett solid passing team at the start of the season. We've become much better and when we shoot we are getting wide-open looks," Traversa said.

  Jake Heggeland of Wheaton North takes a shot over East Aurora defenders. This took place during the Wheaton North vs. East Aurora Class 4A West Aurora boys basketball regional Tuesday. Paul Michna/pmichna@dailyherald.com
  Nick Traversa of Wheaton North attempts to block Maurice Nichols of East Aurora during the Wheaton North vs. East Aurora Class 4A West Aurora boys basketball regional Tuesday. Paul Michna/pmichna@dailyherald.com
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