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Wheaton North sets the pace

Deng Reng and the Wheaton North boys basketball team know they can play quick, slow or a mixture of both.

But, more importantly, they know when to run-and-gun or churn clock.

"Yeah, we can run," Reng said. "We play really well together. We know each other."

In Monday night's season opener against Morton at the Bill VandeMerkt Tournament at Riverside-Brookfield, the Falcons knew they couldn't afford a fast, up-tempo game.

"They can take the pace to any team, I mean, they're really fast," Reng said.

Wheaton North slowed the tempo, controlled the game and rolled to a 69-54 win over Morton. In doing so the Falcons (1-0) stuck to their game plan.

"(Wheaton North coach Dave Brackmann) really wanted us to slow down the pace, because (Morton is) a really athletic team," Reng said. "Morton's really athletic so they can set the pace on any team."

Morton (0-1) showed its quickness from the onset. On the first possession of the game, the Mustangs' Stephen Jordan stole the ball and drove the ball for a layup, just 12 seconds into the game.

"They obviously wanted to play a fast game, kind of get us out of our game," Brackmann said. "We've got some athletes, too, we can play sort of fast. We knew in this game we didn't want to make it a track meet."

So the Falcons made sure they sustained offensive possessions by moving the ball and making the extra pass.

"We knew that as soon as we got into half-court that they wouldn't want to guard," Wheaton North senior Josh Sorenson said. "We got to get into our offense, swing it a couple of times, on the second turn, the third turn, that's when we look to score."

That patient offense was prevalent in the second quarter.

After a layup by Morton's Latik Murphy, Wheaton North scored 8 of the next 10 points to open up a 27-19 lead. That run allowed the Falcons to open a 38-32 halftime lead with momentum on their side.

And the message in the locker room was simple: more of the same.

"Coach talked to us at halftime that we needed to slow the tempo down," Reng said. "He just told us to be smart at halftime. Play our game."

The Falcons, though, didn't keep their approach. Wheaton North had four consecutive possessions early in the third quarter that ended in quick, missed shots.

"We started jacking shots off the first pass," Sorensen said.

A quick Wheaton North timeout in the third resulted in a 10-0 run for the Falcons. That gave them a 50-34 lead, the biggest of the night.

"We attacked and got those open shots," Sorenson said.

From there Wheaton North point guard Matthew Brend and the Falcons controlled the tempo and the game.

"He's a true point guard," Sorenson said. "He's good at pushing it and then bringing it back, setting it up, getting it through our offense and getting us going."

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