Girls Basketball: Naperville North coasts past Providence

Naperville North jumped out to a healthy first-quarter lead and never looked back in Friday’s 50-20 win over Providence.

With the victory, the Huskies (7-5) improve to 2-0 in the Naperville North-Benet Holiday Tournament. The Celtics (6-6) fall to 1-1 in tournament play.

Standout freshman Kayla Sharples scored a game-high 22 points for Naperville North, which seems to be jelling at just the right time. The Huskies have a chance to improve to 3-0 in the tourney when they play Glenbard West Saturday night at 7:30.

“I feel like we work really well together and that we have a lot of potential,” said Sharples, who also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. “And I feel like sooner or later, we will be very good together.”

Perhaps that time is sooner.

Sharples keyed a first quarter in which the Huskies outscored the Celtics 13-4 while forcing them into six turnovers. She scored eight points and hauled in four rebounds in the game’s first eight minutes.

For the night, all but one of her boards came on the offensive end. She also shot 10-of-13 from the foul line, making her final seven attempts.

“Just like our coach has said, it’s 95 percent heart and 5 percent skill,” Sharples said. “I just felt like we could outrebound them (even though) they were taller than us.”

And Naperville North did, by a 32-30 margin against the bigger Celtics. Defense was the area that killed Providence, though.

“For the first 11 games, I had a team that gave me everything on the defensive end and really played hard,” Providence coach Eileen Copenhaver said. “We did not bring that today. We did not have the same attitude today that the first day I saw. …That was not my team. I don’t know what that was.”

The Celtics didn’t help themselves in the turnover department either, coughing the ball up 21 times.

Despite Providence’s ineptitude, the Huskies did not pull away and led just 21-11 at halftime. That’s when Shannon Bushman (10 points, six rebounds) and Zoe Swift (10 points in a reserve role) stepped up big for Naperville North.

After a Sharples three-point play that gave the Huskies a 29-14 lead with 3:55 to play in the third quarter, Bushman buried a pair of three-pointers to pad the lead at 35-15. Swift made her final three free throws to ice the game in the fourth, capping a fine night. In her first two games this year — both in the holiday tournament — she has scored nine and 10 points, respectively, off the bench.

A play that encapsulated the way the Huskies hustled all night came on a basket that made it a 46-17 game. Britney Weizeorick followed her own miss on a three-point attempt, corralled the rebound and found teammate Morganne Freeman for a layup.

“Zoe, Shannon and Kayla did their magic, and once we pushed ahead we didn’t look back,” Naperville North coach Jacquie Discipio said. “And that’s what I told the girls I was real proud of today — that not only are they executing and doing what I’m asking, but now they’re being competitive and they’re finishing games.”

Kathleen Hahne (3 points, 6 rebounds) left the game late in the third on what Discipio said was thought to be a high right ankle sprain. She’s expected back next week for the tournament’s final games Dec. 22 and 23.

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