Wheaton North responds, beats Glenbard North
Wheaton North's boys basketball team didn't want to turn a bad night into a bad weekend.
Bouncing back from a tough loss the night before, the Falcons played a whole lot better in Saturday's 57-40 DuPage Valley Conference victory over visiting Glenbard North.
A 22-3 run bridging the second and third quarters proved pivotal. Wheaton North (10-4, 4-2) carried halftime momentum deep into the third quarter to seize command against the Panthers (4-9, 1-4).
"One of things we say as a team is to always bounce back," said Falcons junior Luke Anthony. "When adversity hits we've just got to bounce back, and that was what we did tonight. It was good to see because Glenbard North is a good team."
Glenbard North led just once on the game's opening basket, but the Panthers stayed close at 12-11 in the opening minute of the second quarter. That's when the Falcons unleashed their devastating 11-minute burst.
By the time it ended - after Michael Gehl scored the first 6 points of the second half - Wheaton North was safely ahead 34-14 midway through the third quarter.
"I thought we started the game well, but they kind of took advantage in the middle of the first quarter and we didn't do a good job of responding," said Panthers coach Joe Larson. "To stem the tide we had to come out with a good third quarter, and it just wasn't there tonight. Give credit to Wheaton North. They played well."
Anthony scored a game-high 20 points for the Falcons, including 11 points during their big run. Gehl added 10 points. Nick LaVere and Adam Jaszka, who made three 3-pointers, each had 9 points for Glenbard North.
"It's a tough conference and you're going to have nights like we had (Friday) night where we just didn't come out with the intensity we needed," said Wheaton North coach Dave Brackmann. "But you can't turn that into two bad games. Credit the kids. We played 32 minutes of good defense tonight."
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