Naperville North remains unbeaten in DVC

All things considered, the Naperville North girls basketball team really needed a basket late in the fourth quarter of Thursday's DuPage Valley Conference contest.

Fresh off a one-sided loss to Downers Grove North the night before, the Huskies led Thursday's tight battle at Neuqua Valley for most of the game. But then Wildcats senior guard Sofia Medina nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to put the home team ahead by 2 points with just over three minutes left to play. The basket came shortly after a 3 from recent varsity call-up Jessica Sun and Neuqua Valley (11-12, 0-4) had all the momentum on its side.

That is until the Huskies Celette Drummond calmly countered with a game-tying basket and then added a pair of late steals to finish off one of her best games of the season. It also finished the much-needed 46-39 win for Naperville North, now 13-9 overall and 4-0 in the DVC.

"Normally we panic when something like that happens, so I just tried to stay calm," Drummond said of her key basket, a short jumper. "I turned and was a little surprised there was not anybody right in front of me so I took the shot and was glad it went in. It was a very fun game."

Naperville North sophomore Greta Kampschroeder had another strong game, finishing with 15 points and 17 rebounds, but she had plenty of help. Drummond had 14 points and 5 steals, Emily Dulik had 4 steals off the bench and Sarah Lockridge banked in a timely 3-pointer off the bench.

"Everyone definitely contributed for us tonight," said Kampschroeder, who tallied 11 points in the first half, which ended with the Huskies on top 24-20. "It was a good team win and Celette is super strong in the post. She's big for us."

A young Wildcats squad did its best to contain Kampschroeder and hang tough throughout, but in the end they had just a few too many turnovers and not enough shots dropped late. Kelly Vonnahme led the way with 10 points and 7 rebounds, while Sun sparked the squad with 9 points off the bench.

"We're OK. I thought we did some nice things, we just need to make a few more shots," Neuqua Valley coach Mike Williams said. "With the effort they turned in I can't complain at all."

After Wednesday night's setback Huskies coach Jason Dycus was thrilled to see his team reverse the outcome Thursday.

"It was a good bounce back game for us," he said. "We had a lot of good contributors tonight and Emily (Dulik) she's tough. She's hard as nails out there."