North Girls Rally Too Late to Catch Minooka

AURORA – For the first three quarters of their 10 a.m. game against Minooka in the Warhawk Tournament at West Aurora Friday, Naperville North's girls basketball team looked as if it was still feeling the effects of big turkey dinners the day before.

The Huskies did wake up with a solid fourth quarter, but it was too late to overcome a big deficit in a 51-43 loss, North's third consecutive loss after winning its opener against Metea Valley.

"I think we were still in our Thanksgiving food comas the first three quarters," North coach Jacquie Discipio said. "I told them that I'm so proud of the way they fought and got back into the game. They need to bring the intensity and the fire like they had in the fourth quarter. We were loose, we were playing, and we were hustling. We looked the best we did the whole game."

By the time the Huskies (1-3) started to come back, they were already down 48-26. But a 15-1 run keyed by two 3-pointers from Shannon Bushman and another 3 from Emily Carpenter cut the lead to 49-41 in the final minute.

"I think at the beginning, it was the day after Thanksgiving and we had a couple of days off and we just weren't prepared to play," Bushman said. "I think at the end of the game, there was a lot more positive energy."

North was down 36-18 at the half, and Minooka (3-1) closed the half on a 7-0 run, capped by Stephanie Furr's 3-pointer at the buzzer.

"At halftime, (assistant coach Ryan Hantak) and I had to poke at them a little bit, and they responded," Discipio said. "The first half was the worst, for sure. We got to school early today and had a shoot around to get prepared, but we didn't come mentally ready to play."

Minooka jumped out to a 12-0 lead to start the game. Furr scored seven of her game-high 29 points in that run. North didn't score until Bukky Adesanya's jumper with 26 seconds left in the first. North cut the lead to 38-24 in the third, only to see the Indians go on a 10-2 run to establish their biggest lead, 22 points.

Bushman was the big reason why North came back. She scored a team-high 23 points after going scoreless in the first quarter.

"Shannon had a rough first few minutes, but she worked through a slump," Discipio said. "She was in a slump in the first half and she came back and worked through it and wound up with 23 points. I can't ask for anything more from her."

The Huskies wrap up tournament play at 11:30 a.m. Saturday against Conant.

"I think after the last few minutes, we're ready for the next game," Bushman said. "We're on the bus already talking about what we're going to do tomorrow. We need to prove to ourselves, our coaches and our families that we can play a full four quarters of basketball."