Boys Basketball: Naperville North holds off WW South

Updated: January 31, 2012 10:46PM

Two different Naperville North teams appeared at Tuesday’s DuPage Valley Conference contest.

First, there was the Huskies team that posted five turnovers to just four points in the first quarter en route to being outscored 14-4 by Wheaton South. That version of the Huskies also allowed a blistering 6-for-9 shooting display by the Tigers (7-13, 3-6) in the opening period.

Then, the Naperville North group that showed up for the start of the second quarter surfaced. That squad held Wheaton South to 8-for-23 shooting the rest of the night, outscoring the Tigers in each of the remaining quarters to eke out a 38-36 road win.

“I thought we started picking up our defense the second quarter,” Naperville North coach Jeff Powers said. “I don’t know why we came out so flat, but we did and we’ve got to correct that. I thought our defense and our kids stepped up and battled through with persistence, especially the second half we played really, really good defense.”

Wheaton South’s Tim Zyburt led all scorers with 17 points and also paced the Tigers with five rebounds. Mike Keane scored a team-high 12—including the game-winning layup--for the Huskies (15-5, 8-1) to go with a team-high-tying four rebounds.

Zyburt scored 10 in the first half and seven over the final two periods. Keane, on the other hand, scored eight of his 12 in the second half as Naperville North mounted its comeback.

David Sinickas (six points) scored from inside to cut Wheaton South’s lead to 26-22 late in the third and Derek Westman (11 points) buried a three-pointer that pulled the Huskies to within 26-25 with under 90 seconds to play in the quarter.

Then, early in the fourth, Westman’s layup in traffic gave Naperville North its first lead of the night at 27-26. The game see-sawed back and forth from there, setting up the Huskies’ heroics in the final minute and a half.

Max Lewis (seven points, four rebounds) drained a three from the corner to tie the game at 36-all with 86 seconds to play in the ballgame. With the game tied, the Huskies forced a steal near midcourt and the pass went to Keane, whose layup was the final bucket of the game for either team.

The Tigers’ Danny Roadman (five points) was forced to take a runner in the lane in the final seconds and the shot missed. Wheaton South could not get off another attempt as the horn sounded.

“I Knew Kyle (Lindberg) was going to get to the ball and I just had to get up the court as fast as possible to try and get an easy bucket so we could take the win—or the lead,” Keane said.

Keane was happy with the comeback.

“We’re used to starting off kind of slow,” he said. “It’s kind of our reputation but we know we’re never out of a game because we have a lot of good shooters.”

Zach Zlabis scored seven for the Tigers, also grabbing four rebounds. This has been a frustrating season for Wheaton South.

Tuesday, things started off right only to go downhill quickly.

“We were running some sets that we thought we’d be able to get (points off),” Wheaton South coach Robert Szorc said. “The kids executed well but (Naperville North) went zone and we struggled—give them credit, (they had) big buckets down the stretch. That’s what teams (who are at the) top of the conference do when it matters in the fourth quarter. They made plays.”

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