Naperville North sizzles against Naperville Central
Naperville North just needed an eight-minute warmup Friday night.
Then the first quarter ended and the Huskies heated up. Near the boiling point, it seemed. The host Huskies blew past archrival Naperville Central in the second and third quarters for a 70-49 DuPage Valley Conference girls basketball victory.
"It's definitely not how we wanted to come out," Huskies senior forward Kaitlyn Castillo said of the first quarter, which ended with the Redhawks leading 8-7. "We knew we were so much better than that. I think just the moment got to us. The crowd got to us. We just had to remember the team that we actually are and then we got in our flow again."
"We settled down offensively," Naperville North coach Jason Dycus added. "We had a few unforced turnovers in the first quarter. We had a horrible start to the game, to be quite honest. And then we settled down. We were more patient offensively."
The Huskies (5-4, 2-0) took the lead for good at the four-minute mark of the second quarter when Kara Rivard's layup made the score 17-16. Then a Sarah Crossett basket completed a 10-0 Naperville North run. At halftime the Huskies led 28-19.
"Once we clicked, we clicked," Castillo said.
They kept clicking in the third quarter, outscoring Naperville Central 28-11 to put the game out of reach. The margin reached 30 points in the fourth quarter.
Not bad for a team burdened by a three-game losing streak entering the game. The Huskies also lost junior guard Nikki Kwilosz last week to a season-ending knee injury.
"It was a big win for us and we've kinda going through a rough patch with our team right now, but we're so excited because this is going to make us stronger. We're very happy to end the week on a good note," Castillo said after the Huskies celebrated in the locker room after the game.
Sophomore guard Greta Kampschroeder led the Huskies with 23 points, 17 in the second half, plus 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. Rivard scored 13 points, and Castillo and Letti Drummond added 8 apiece.
"We had some role players that I put in the game," Dycus said, "I mean Jaida (Wilmington) did a nice job, and Bella (Gehrs) gets in there and does some nice things. The freshman, Sarah Crossett, came in and scored a couple of buckets on some nice drives. So we had some people step up. And I thought Kara Rivard was huge. Greta had a great game. So we had a good, team victory tonight."
Three-point shooting was a highlight for the Redhawks (4-5, 0-1). They made 10 from long range, with sophomore guard Karly Maida hitting 7 of 10 and finishing with 23 points. Junior forward Sara Opalka hit two more 3-pointers to added 12 points.
"We know she can shoot like that, you know? And for three quarters I don't know that we did a real good job finding her," Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum said. "She's a great shooter. That's the way we've got to win. We've got to shoot the ball, because we don't have the size that you need. The second and third quarter, they were outstanding defensively and we were bad."