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Naperville North gets even with Wheaton North

It's been 10 victories and nearly two months since Naperville North's boys basketball team last saw Wheaton North.

The Falcons, however, never strayed from the back of the mind.

The Huskies avenged their lone DuPage Valley Conference loss and extended their lead atop the standings with Tuesday's 67-56 road victory over Wheaton North.

With four players reaching double-figure scoring and two adding 8 points, balanced Naperville North (16-3, 9-1) built a 23-point second-half margin. The victory puts the Huskies a full game ahead of second-place Lake Park heading into Friday's matchup in Roselle.

"We had a chip on our shoulder because our only DVC loss is to them," said Huskies guard Jelani McClain, who scored 12 points while playing through foul trouble. "We knew we had to come back and prove something tonight. We wanted to get the job done from the get-go."

There were three lead changes and four ties before Naperville North closed the first half on an 11-0 run capped by a one-handed dunk from Mitch Lewis, who scored all 15 of his team-high points in the first half.

Another 11-0 run hammered the Falcons (12-8, 6-5) midway through the third quarter as they fell behind 49-26, a burst that saw consecutive 3-pointers by the Huskies' Cam Hardy, Winston Elston and Chris Sullivan.

Despite a furious fourth-quarter rally where they forced 7 turnovers, the Falcons never came closer than 9 points away,

"We didn't have any defensive resistance early at all," said Wheaton North coach Dave Brackmann. "The disappointing part was unlike (Friday's win over Glenbard West), where I thought we executed a game plan perfectly, tonight we didn't at all."

Luke Anthony scored 13 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter for Wheaton North, while Rowan McGowen scored 16 points and Jack Bennett had 11 points. Elston and Johnson each had 10 points for the Huskies.

"The second quarter I thought we came out and did some great things," said Naperville North coach Jeff Powers, whose team has won 11 of 12 games since losing to the Falcons on Dec. 11. "We had contributions from just about everyone that played."

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