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Unbeaten Waubonsie Valley trips up Naperville North

It was about 5 p.m. Friday when Waubonsie Valley boys basketball coach Jason Mead learned that Naperville North senior forward Tom Welch might not be playing in their DuPage Valley Conference opener.

Did that change the game plan? Not really.

"I didn't want to prepare that way until we got here and saw he wasn't here, because you never know if what you hear is true or not," Mead said. "Obviously, it's different preparing one way all week and then having to play a different way, but at the same time, we still have to go out and play."

Welch was indeed unavailable Friday, at an All-American soccer event in Florida, and while Waubonsie Valley won 51-38, it wasn't exactly easy.

"They exposed a lot of weaknesses we have, in terms of some of our discipline defensively and some of our ability to make plays when they are doing different stuff on defense," said Mead, who saw his team jump out to a 12-0 lead to start the game, only to watch the Huskies battle back to cut that advantage to 18-14 at the half.

But the Warriors got yeoman's work from junior forward Marcus Skeete, who scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed 5 rebounds.

Skeete scored 9 in Waubonsie Valley's 11-0 run to start the second half on two layups in the lane and jumpers from either side of the court.

He also booked a pair of 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter that put the game away and helped the Warriors remain undefeated at 5-0 and 1-0 in the DVC.

Skeete said the big challenge for him and his teammates was finding seams in Naperville North's 3-2 zone defense, which the Huskies played most of the contest.

"We had to find gaps in the zone; we had to get the drive lane open and make some layups," he said. "We had some slips where the guy would go out we'd get a nice screen and he'd get a layup."

The Huskies (2-3, 0-1) accounted for themselves well without their star, battling back to that 18-14 halftime deficit with a 10-4 run, including 4 points apiece from sophomore Grant Johnson and junior Myles Barry.

When they got down 45-24 early in the fourth quarter, they didn't roll over, crafting an 11-0 run that cut the deficit to 45-35. That was capped by a 3-pointer from the right corner with 1:12 to go by junior Riley Thompson.

"We didn't panic and we played our way," said Thompson, who led the Huskies with 13 points. "So I'm really proud of my team. We didn't get flustered and upset because we were down so much. We kept going."

Those sentiments were echoed by Naperville North first-year coach Gene Nolan.

"I was really proud of our kids," Nolan said. "Waubonsie is a really good team, and I thought once we got down 12 to start the game, our kids really fought back. I thought we defended reasonably well against a good team. I thought we worked to get good, efficient shots."

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