Naperville North rolls in playoff tuneup

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:18AM

Wednesday night's game amounted to a tune-up for Naperville North as the Huskies soundly defeated host West Chicago 63-37 on Wednesday in their regular-season finale.

Jon Mengel scored 11 points to lead the Huskies to the DuPage Valley victory.

"It's an important game for us as far as momentum is concerned," said Mengel. "We wanted to do things to work on our game as we head into the playoffs."

The Huskies (15-11, 9-5) pounded the much smaller Wildcats, starting with a 17-5 lead after one quarter. Things didn't get much better for the Wildcats, who fell behind 26-13 at the half.

The Wildcats (4-21, 0-14) scratched away at the deficit, but could not overcome the early hole or the Huskies' big men, Mengel and Matt LaCosse (6 points).

"(West Chicago) fought hard but they couldn't play against our big guys, Mengel and LaCrosse," said Huskies Coach Jeff Powers. "Our kids want to keep playing. They don't want the season to end. They are a close group. We are ready for the playoffs."

The Huskies opened the Class 4A playoffs against Oswego.

"We'll just keep sharing the ball on offense and stopping the penetration up the middle on defense," said Powers.

Justin Mundt scored a game-high 12 points for the Wildcats.

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