Platou, Naperville North win in rout

While only a junior, Naperville North guard Lauren Platou has plenty of varsity experience and is considered one of the Huskies veteran leaders.

She played the leader role perfectly Monday night, sparking Naperville North's offense early on and helping lead a trapping defense that caused Plainfield Central fits as the Huskies won the nonconference girls basketball game 51-23 in Naperville.

Platou scored 7 points as the Huskies took a 14-4 lead after one quarter, and she led all players with 12 points as the hosts built a commanding 33-7 lead at the half.

"So far the biggest thing for us as a team is we've played some quarters better than others, but we've really tried to work on playing a whole game as a team and working hard the whole game," said Platou, who finished with 5 rebounds and 3 steals to go with her 12 points.

It was a defense that forced 7 first-quarter turnovers and 13 through to two quarters that caused the 1-10 Wildcats much heartache. Freshman point guard Kara Rivard had 4 steals and, like Platou, Chloe Kotrba also came away with a trio of takeaways.

"We know we have a lot of athletic girls so we wanted to make sure to use that speed, use that athleticism to kind of trap the ball and get those fastbreaks," said Platou, who this year has moved from point guard to shooting guard. "I think that really helped out throughout the game and it just worked out really well with our traps.

"I've played point guard in past years so I know I've always had to kind of take a half leadership role. But now as someone who's older on the team I'm able to do that, and I'm kind of helping the younger kids out."

With the win the Huskies improved to 5-4 heading into this week's tourney action at home, which includes a matchup with defending state champion Benet. Coach Jason Dycus knows an effort like Monday's is great for his young team's confidence.

"I feel really good for the girls," Dycus said. "I'm glad we're back on a winning streak."

The Naperville North coach has been impressed with his freshman guard's all-around play, and with the corresponding position move by Platou.

"Kara is a good-looking freshman. She's a steady point guard for us and defensively she gets after people," he said of Rivard. "She can impact the game even when she's not scoring. She wants to do the dirty work. And it helps me as a coach because I'm able to move Lauren to the 2 and use Lauren's athleticism more."

Plainfield Central coach Greg Bayer was impressed with both the Huskies' defense and their passing on offense.

"They were trapping us and we weren't making the best decisions in that trap," Bayer said. "But they had great ball movement. They play a really good style of basketball and it paid off for them."

Viviana Medina paced the Wildcats with 7 points, while Morgan Lockridge, Cami Bilardello, Kotrba and Sadie Jurkovic each tallied 6 points in the game for Naperville North.