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Naperville North snaps 3-game skid vs. rival

Zeke Williams was a smooth operator at home on Tuesday night.

The Naperville North junior sparked a late third quarter run with his defense and ability to score in transition as the Huskies survived crosstown rival, Naperville Central, 57-49, in DVC action.

"It's a rivalry game so you've got to be hyped about it," he said. "In the third quarter it was about getting steals and making shots. We got our momentum, getting and-ones and stuff like that."

Luke Williams tied the game at 28-28 with his turnaround jumper in the lane with 3:35 left in the third quarter before Zeke Williams turned two straight steals into back-to-back three-point plays for a 36-28 lead. Liam Kim's drive gave the Huskies their biggest lead at 38-28 with 1:15 left in the quarter.

"Zeke had those really nice steals and we started to play a lot more aggressive," Huskies senior Grant Johnson said. "Central is always good at competing, no matter the score, so even when we went on a 6-0, 8-0 run, we knew we couldn't stop."

Zeke Williams led the Huskies (2-3, 1-2) with 22 points while Johnson added 11.

"We really wanted this win after getting beat by them three times in a row," Zeke Williams said. "We kind of felt like we're not getting beat again and the rivalry gave us an extra boost."

The Redhawks (1-3, 1-2) got a big effort from James Jopes in the second half after sophomore Mantas Zilys gave the Huskies fits in the opening half. Jopes scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half while Zilys scored all but 2 of his 14 before the mid-game break.

"I thought (Zilys) showed a lot of composure for a sophomore in an archrival game, and he's only going to get better and better," Redhawks coach Pete Kramer said. "He hit some big shots for us, especially early, and we have confidence in him shooting the ball."

Jonah Hinton's (8 points) 3-pointer with 3:19 left to play pulled the Redhawks to within 49-45, but they would not close the gap, with Liam Kiam (6 points, 5 rebounds) finding Jacob Scharm (8 points) for an easy bucket with only 2:25 remaining.

"Offensively, I felt we moved the ball pretty well," Johnson said. "They were pretty good at guarding us. They always play aggressive and we just had to adjust to that, but I think we did a good job of playing together."

The Redhawks led by as much as 21-13 midway through the second quarter, but struggled in patches, including being victimized for 13 turnovers.

"Turnovers and rebounding, that's our keys," Kramer said. "If we don't do those things we're going to find ourselves in trouble and when we do them, we're going to have success. We were just lackadaisical and I think it was just for a few stretches, but those stretches cost us the game. Otherwise I thought the kids responded and kept composure most of the night."

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