Naperville North raises its voice
On a quiet Tuesday evening Naperville North's boys basketball team made plenty of noise.
The Huskies defied a relatively still atmosphere by exploding for an 82-58 nonconference victory over visiting Joliet West.
Naperville North stayed unbeaten at 7-0, leading wire-to-wire after 6-foot-7 senior post Chris Johnson tallied the game's first 5 points.
As strong as the Huskies started in the face of Joliet West's pressure defense, nothing compared to the 17-0 blitz that opened the second quarter and put the outcome virtually to rest at 38-11. Joliet West (4-4) tried to stem the tide with a pair of timeouts, but to no avail.
"We knew they were real quick and athletic, so we didn't want to turn the ball over," said Huskies senior David Kushner. "We were able to limit our turnovers and play through our big guys. We're just trying to keep our focus and play our best."
After Johnson scored 11 points in the first quarter, Kushner scored 8 of his 10 points in the decisive second-quarter run and Welch added 10 second-quarter points.
The Huskies haven't been completely pleased with their starts of late, but Tuesday was ideal. Naperville North went deep into its bench early and for much of the second half as nine players tallied at least 3 points.
"On a Tuesday night you've got to make energy for yourself, and we try to do that every night," Welch said. "In previous games we haven't really had a great first quarter, so that was kind of the goal for this game. Come out hot, make them call time out or something, and just come out with a bang."
Welch led Naperville North with 18 points while Chris Johnson had 15 points. Each grabbed 7 rebounds. Ryan Laurenzo knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and scored 13 points. Kevin Lang scored 9 points.
Joliet West senior Michael Smith hit four 3-pointers to lead all scorers with 22 points. Darren Williams scored 10 points.
"We had a good practice on Monday, and I felt comfortable today," said Huskies coach Jeff Powers. "We had to practice in the morning, but the kids were focused in the morning practice and that's hard to do."
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