Naperville North’s Mitch Lewis was whistled for a charging foul in the fourth quarter Friday night, but it was just about the only thing he did wrong.
Lewis blocked shots, grabbed rebounds, dished out assists and scored in double figures as Naperville North overcame a slow start to earn a 62-50 DuPage Valley Conference win at Waubonsie Valley.
Lewis finished with 10 points, five rebounds, four blocked shots and two third-quarter assists that helped conference champ North (21-4, 14-1) build a 26-25 halftime lead into a 45-35 advantage going into the fourth quarter.
Waubonsie Valley (5-20, 1-14) didn’t play the first half like a team that had won only one conference game.
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“The halftime talk from coach (Jeff) Powers,” Lewis said of the spark to North’s second-half push. “We kind of took it upon ourselves, kind of came together as a team to change things around. Push the ball, got rebounds, just did the little things.”
That included delivering the ball to the open player. The 6-foot-6 Lewis found 6-6 Chris Johnson and 6-4 EJ Vaughn under the basket for key layups during the third-quarter surge.
“He’s a very talented young man, very gifted,” Powers said of Lewis. “When you’ve got size at 6-6 and you’re a point guard by nature, that’s a beautiful thing.
“And when he wants to defend, he can be a very good defender, like the blocked shots he got.”
It’s not easy to get Lewis to boast and point out the positives in his game.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys who are able to do everything,” the junior guard said. “Johnson and Vaughn, they do a really good job of posting themselves up and making themselves available.”
Johnson had a game-high 17 points and nine rebounds. Jelani McClain (10 points, 8 rebounds), Vaughn (9 points) and Tyler Carlson (8 points) also played key roles in North’s 12th straight conference victory.
“I knew we had a height advantage, so we knew we had to utilize it,” Johnson said. “We try to do that every game.”
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Johnson scored six points and grabbed four rebounds in the third quarter to help North take control.
“We were a little full of ourselves at the beginning, but we started to get it going in the second half,” Johnson said.
Powers saw it the same way.
“Credit to their team. They came out hungry and wanting to play. We came out like we didn’t want to play,” Powers said. “We were selfish the first half.
“Then when we started playing a little harder, stopped their middle penetration and started pushing the ball up, we did good things. We looked like our old team.”
Demetrius Ewing (16 points, 6 rebounds) and JaQuan Bowman (11 points, 10 rebounds) led Waubonsie Valley.
“We’re young,” Waubonsie coach Chaz Taft said. “At one point, we had three freshmen out there. They’re quick, they’re athletic, they’ve got great attitudes. And they’re getting experience.”
Waubonsie ends its regular season Wednesday at Wheaton North. Naperville North finishes with a home game Wednesday against Wheaton-Warrenville South.
“We’ve got to come out with more energy to get the win,” Johnson said.
Tim Tierney is a freelance writer for the Naperville Sun.