After his team’s 17-point victory over Marmion on Tuesday night, which snapped a two-game losing streak, sixth-year Naperville North coach Jeff Powers made a keen observation in regards to his team’s next opponent.
“We usually don’t play before Christmas, so this is a first time for that (since I’ve been at Naperville North). So this is a good way to go into it, the way our kids played (against Marmion),” Powers said.
For the first time in Powers’ tenure, he’ll lead his team into a meeting with crosstown rival Naperville Central in the month of December when the Huskies travel to play the Redhawks Friday night.
Friday night will mark the first December meeting between the two programs since a 43-31 Naperville Central victory on Dec. 19, 2008 during Mark Lindo’s final year at the helm of the Huskies’ program and Drew Crawford’s senior year at Naperville Central.
Both teams enter the first of two meetings on the season, with the other coming in February at Naperville North, on high notes as Naperville North (3-4, 0-1) played perhaps its best game of the year on Tuesday during a 66-49 triumph over Marmion.
Meanwhile, Naperville Central (6-2, 1-0) had its six-game winning streak snapped by Lake Park on Tuesday in a 45-34 loss at the Addison Trail Invite in the first of what could potentially be four meetings with the Lancers this season.
“I’ve seen them play twice. They’re talented. They’re good,” Powers said. “They’re a little bit bigger than us. It’ll be a typical Naperville North-Naperville Central game. It’ll be fun. It’ll be a good atmosphere.”
During the six-game winning streak, which included claiming third place in the Hoops for Healing Tournament, the Redhawks kept five opponents under 50 points while averaging just a shade over 50 points a game themselves at 52.2 points.
The only two teams to eclipse the 50-point mark against the Redhawks through eight games were De La Salle in a 53-43 Meteors victory on Nov. 24 and Benet in a 56-51 Redhawks victory in overtime on Nov. 28.
“I’m more happy with the way these guys are handling adversity. When things don’t go their way, when teams make runs on us, we don’t fall apart. We still regroup,” Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer said after his team nearly blew a 14-point lead in the second half before holding firm to beat Glenbard West, 47-45.
Playing his first two full games this past weekend as Naperville Central earned home victories over both Glenbard North and Glenbard West, junior center Harry Hallstrom showed why there could be life past Nick Czarnowski down low.
The 6-foot-7, 195-pound Hallstrom combined for 24 points & 15 rebounds in the back-to-back victories over the Rams and Hilltoppers.
“We’re glad to have (Hallstrom) back,” Redhawks’ junior guard Matthew Meier said. “That’s nice.”
Meier led the Redhawks with 11 points in the 11-point loss to Lake Park on Tuesday after combining for 27 points in the two victories over the weekend.
Four of Naperville Central’s six victories on the young season have been in single digits as the remnants from last season’s 20-win team that lost Czarnowski, Ryan Antony and Matt Bennett to graduation are learning on the fly.
“Like Coach (Kramer) said, we’re young. I think only me and Nate (Dahl) have had significant amount of varsity experience, so a lot of guys are stepping up and, you know, we’re winning games,” Matthew Meier said. “It’s awesome because last year, I mean, we struggled with close games. We lost a lot of close ones, so we’re holding our own. We’re doing well.”
In the early going, the Huskies have been paced by one of their seniors and a sophomore that continues to show why Powers made the decision to bring him up.
Senior Baylor Griffin leads the Huskies with his average of 9.1 points per game while sophomore Mitch Lewis is right behind him at 8.9 points a game.
On Tuesday against the Cadets, the Huskies got a team-high 15 points from Lewis, including 12 in the first half, and 14 points from Griffin.
“We were swinging the ball well and we were getting drives, but I think we needed to drive the ball and this was our first game where we actually played like a team,” Griffin said. “So it was helpful to play as a team and get the W.”
Already having played the likes of Benet, Neuqua Valley and Lyons Township, Naperville North has been tested early on.
With the Huskies incorporating some youth behind the likes of seniors Griffin, Zach Tuxhorn and Brian Dalton to go along with junior point guard Jelani McClain, Powers thinks Lewis and his team will both collectively get better as the season moves along.
“We had 29 points (last Friday at Lake Park), we didn’t play very good that night. Missed a lot of shots, but I thought we played actually pretty good against LT (at the United Center),” Powers said. “Like you know, we’re playing a lot of 5-1 (type) teams and they’re good and we’re just … with the young kids that we’re playing, they’re starting to learn the game and they’re going to help us and we’re going to get better as the year goes on.”
