West Chicago sophomore guard Hudson Parker claimed he didn’t hear the four words that altered the momentum of Tuesday’s game.But junior guard Ayden Russo did, along with most of the sparse crowd in attendance at venerable Chesbrough Field House in Elgin.

For a little over 3 minutes, La Salle-Peru played lights-out basketball, and as was the case for most of the game on Tuesday against West Chicago, Josh Senica was the catalyst.Senica scored the first two buckets of what turned into a pivotal 15-0 run late in the second quarter as the Cavaliers knocked off the Wildcats, 68-60, in the second round of the Chuck Dayton Classic in DeKalb.

Glenbard East senior Tyrese Buffkin was well aware that a sluggish second quarter might just give visiting West Chicago enough of a spark to enable the Wildcats to pull off an upset Tuesday night, so he and his fellow Rams wanted to change things up at the start of the second half.

It didn’t take long for Glenbard North to show host West Chicago that the second half of Saturday afternoon’s boys basketball game might not be quite as enjoyable as the first two quarters. The Panthers, who led just 25-24 at the half, picked up the pace on both sides of the floor in the second half and used a barrage of inside buckets and forced turnovers to win going away 56-38. Glenbard North opened the third quarter with a fastbreak reverse layup from sophomore JJ Hernandez and followed that up with a pair of quick driving baskets by Josh Applewhite for a quick 6-0 run.

Here’s a look at the boys basketball season in the Upstate Eight