Humble and hungry.
If Mitch Lewis has anything to say about it, that’s how Naperville North has been and it’s how it will stay.
Off to a 15-3 start through their first 18 games, the Huskies begin the final eight games of their season with a rugged two-game stretch this week.
On Tuesday, the Huskies will look to avenge their only DuPage Valley Conference loss – a 72-67 home defeat to Wheaton North on Dec. 11 – before traveling to face Lake Park on Friday.
At 8-1 inside the DVC, Naperville North holds a slight lead over 8-2 Lake Park – in large part to its 70-67 victory over the Lancers on Dec. 2.
Reasons for all the success the Huskies, who have won 10 of their last 11 games, have enjoyed for much of the year can be boiled down to one thing – depth.
Six players are averaging at least 7.3 points per game – with sophomore Chris Johnson’s 11.2 and junior Winston Elston’s 10.7 leading the way.
“The kids all played hard, kind of knowing their roles, where they’re at. If someone doesn’t do it, someone else is picking them up,” Naperville North coach Jeff Powers said after the Huskies beat Metea Valley, 74-68, on Friday.
But the presence of Lewis back in the rotation has taken the Huskies to a different level.
Back after dealing with two different injuries,, which kept him out until Naperville North’s second-place finish at the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic, Lewis is getting more and more like himself.
Lewis responded to returning to the starting lineup for the first time this year by going for a game-high 21 points, including 13 in the second half, against Metea Valley.
“Yeah, absolutely (makes a difference),” Metea Valley coach Bob Vozza said of Lewis. “Outstanding player. Very tough to defend, just his size and ability to score inside was a tough matchup for us all night. Guys who were on him did as good as they can, but he’s a heck of an addition to that group.”
In three of the Huskies’ last four games, Lewis has reached double figures – with an 18-point effort Jan. 23 at Wheaton Warremville South and his 21 points against Metea Valley leading the way.
Ask junior Cam Hardy about what has made this team click so much as it eyes a top-three seed in the forthcoming Class 4A East Aurora Sectional and he keeps it simple.
“Every game, we’re just going to take it day by day and practice how we’ve got to practice and see what we can do every game,” he said after scoring 18 in the victory over Metea Valley.
What they’ve done up to this point is show an ability to use their depth and athleticism to overwhelm opponents at times as eight double-digit wins will attest.
Their seven wins that have come within 10 points also indicates a knack of being able to lock in when they’ve needed to late.
But as the home stretch of the regular season becomes viewable from beyond the horizon, Powers wants his charges to work on what makes great teams great.
“We’re still trying to learn what the elite teams do,” he said. “When elite teams get a lead, they press on the gas and don’t take off the gas. So we don’t know how to do that. And, yes, we’re young. But we’re still guys that have played a while – all of last year and this year. So we got to figure out how to keep stepping on the gas the whole game.”
