Naperville North makes cross-town victory a group effort
The third quarter ticked away and Naperville North's Tom Welch still hadn't scored.
And all was right with the Huskies.
With others chipping in - and with Welch assisting much of it - Naperville North managed to build a comfortable lead en route to Friday's 51-40 DuPage Valley Conference cross-town win over visiting Naperville Central.
Loyola-bound Welch scored 11 of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter, but it was during his scoreless third quarter that the Huskies (3-4, 1-1) exploded for a double-digit lead. Junior Myles Barry, sophomore Grant Johnson and freshman Zeke Williams all scored as a 14-3 run turned a 3-point lead into a 37-23 advantage heading to the fourth quarter.
"This whole week I've been looking forward to this game," said Welch, who returned to the lineup after missing two losses last weekend because of a soccer commitment. "I'm so happy to be back. It's a whole team effort and I think Central focused too much on me tonight. That's what allowed me to distribute and find other people for easy buckets."
Naperville North's defense stymied the Redhawks (0-6, 0-2) for much of the night. Cam Dougherty scored 22 points, including four 3-pointers, but the rest of the group struggled, especially with guard Payton Thorne on a football visit to Western Michigan University.
"We held Tom scoreless in the third quarter and we didn't take advantage," Dougherty said. "That stretch really killed us. It's there, but we're not putting together good stretches all the time. We're too inconsistent."
With the Redhawks trailing 23-17 at halftime, Dougherty opened the second half with a 3-pointer to trim the deficit to 23-20. That's when Naperville North took off with its young trio of players. Williams finished with 9 points in his most extensive playing time of the season while Barry and Johnson scored 7 apiece.
"I thought we played probably our best basketball of the year in that third quarter," said Huskies coach Gene Nolan. "I think it helped that other kids had that experience (last weekend) and we're getting better because of it."
Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer is hopeful next week's return to the lineup of Thorne and 6-foot-5 junior Matt Murphy will bring a boost to the Redhawks.
"We were better than we were a week ago," Kramer said. "I though the kids played hard and Cam played real well. I feel like we're getting there."
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