Sole possession of first place in the DuPage Valley Conference at stake, Naperville North came to Roselle ready for a fight Friday night.
Harboring every intention on leaving Roselle in the same fashion it came – atop the DVC all by its lonesome – its brawn moreso than its skill made good on that declaration.
Thanks to getting three players in double figures while battling back-and-forth with Lake Park late, Naperville North won for the 12th time in 13th games – courtesy of a 54-49 victory.
Junior Mitch Lewis had 14 of his team-high 16 points in the second half while senior Jelani McClain and sophomore big man Chris Johnson added in 11 apiece for the Huskies, who have won eight straight.
“I just kind of took it within myself,” Lewis said. “I mean, as a team – we took it within ourselves to just keep on fighting. We just had to pull this win out and it feels real good.”
With a second victory over Lake Park in as many tries, Naperville North (17-3, 10-1) owns a two-game lead with five conference games left while chasing the program’s first conference title since 2012.
“As Coach (Jeff Powers) just reminded us, our job isn’t over,” McClain said. “This is a nice little lead, but we still have five conference games left. Have Glenbard North coming up on Tuesday and we only beat them by two last time. We still got our rival (Naperville Central) left and Neuqua’s still playing good, I hear. So we still have a long way to go.”
After trailing as by many as eight points in the first half, the Huskies used a 6-0 run to go into halftime only down two points at 25-23.
A Johnson three-point play to open up the second half gave the Huskies at 26-25 lead – their first lead since holding a 10-9 lead with 3:12 left in the first quarter.
From there, the Huskies and Lancers engaged in a serious matter of tit-for-tat.
In the second half alone, the lead exchanged hands 12 times while the game was tied five different times.
As the Lancers and Huskies went back-and-forth, the game bogged down to a halt with a combined 34 free throw attempts coming in the second half.
Beginning with a pair of free throws with 4:31 left in the third, which tied the game at 28-28, Lewis scored exactly half – 12 – of the Huskies’ next 24 points – mostly by attacking the hole.
“In the DVC, I’d say Lake Park is the most physical team – by far – and they play great defense,” he said. “Just got to get used to it and we just had to make adjustments. The refs kind of let us play ball and that’s what it was.
“We just kept on going and the main focus was take care of the ball. That was the main focus, but nothing different besides take care of the ball and just keep on fighting. Then it was just heart after that.”
Of Johnson’s 11 points, six of them came in the first half.
But his work inside on both ends of the floor and on the glass helped keep Naperville North within striking distance of Lake Park, which ended the first on a 13-2 run.
A three-pointer and a conventional three-point play from Bailey Vance, who led all scorers with 19, helped give the Lancers a 25-17 lead with 1:48 to play in the first half.
Undeterred, baskets from Johnson, McClain and Winston Elston, who had eight points, helped give the Huskies a reset going into the game’s final 16 minutes.
“I think our big key to our toughness is our sophomore,” Powers said. “Chris Johnson is a son of a gun. He just started planting himself in there, got a lot of rebounds and didn’t give up stuff to (Mitch) Jarosinski, who was playing one hell of a game.
“Then I think also Cam (Hardy) gave us that nastiness that he does defensively. I don’t think he scored like three points or so. But him and then (Chris) Sullivan comes in and he can defend. Winston hits the free throws, the offensive part of it. So it was a total team effort.”
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