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Downers Grove North still perfect after beating Glenbard West

The Downers Grove North boys basketball team latched its grip from the beginning on Friday night's West Suburban Silver opener against visiting Glenbard West and won 58-39.

Defense played a big role in the Trojans being in control from the beginning.

"Tonight was a little different from the other games," said Downers North coach Jim Thomas, whose team improved to 7-0. "We played really good defense, except for a couple of minutes, from start to finish with our rotations and covering the perimeter. I don't think we have played defense for four quarters like we did tonight."

The Trojans led 15-5 after the first eight minutes on 6-of-13 shooting from the field. The Hilltoppers (4-3, 0-2) were limited in their opportunities shooting just 2 of 7.

Glenbard West's Connor Mullins hit net with 3:52 left in the opening quarter to put his team to within 10-5. But a putback by Downers North's Bryan Jakobsze and a 3-point basket by Anthony Castelvecchi closed the quarter for the Trojans.

Downers North kept its foot on the gas pedal, shooting 5 of 12 in the second quarter and leading 29-12 at halftime.

A basket by Ryan Pustelnik put the Trojans up 22-8. The Hilltoppers enjoyed some brief momentum, a 4-0 run, on a basket by Alex Pihlstrom and two free throws by Mullins. Downers North, though, closed the first half on baskets by Keenan Davis and Pustelnik and a 3-pointer by Castelvecchi.

"We had great support from the community tonight with our first conference home game. We fed off of that. We had a ton more energy than the other night (a 62-42 Wednesday win at home against Glenbard South)," Thomas said.

The Trojans stayed in control as the second half started, scoring seven of the third quarter's first 11 points. But Glenbard West got its offense going, shooting a much healthier 6 of 15. After a Downers North timeout with 6:02 remaining, the Hilltoppers went on a 7-0 run to pull to within 36-23. Baskets by Mullins and Chris Langan and a putback by Pihlstrom keyed that spurt.

Downers North led 44-25 at the end of the third quarter and got back a 20-point advantage early in the fourth on a shot by Kaufmann.

Later in the quarter, sophomore Evan Taylor, who scored a game-high 16 points for Glenbard West, hit net to pull his team to within 16. With just more than two minutes remaining, Castelvecchi's basket put the Trojans back up by 20 and both teams then freely substituted.

Jakobsze finished with 14 points. Castelvecchi had 10.

"We're just playing well as team," Jakobsze said. "We have really good practices. Some of the group has been together for a while. We have a couple of new guards. We're playing well defensively and we're executing our game plan."

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