Growing up, Waubonsie Valley’s Jackson Langendorf learned to adapt to the moment.
It started while playing against his older brother, Carter. At that time, Langendorf had to develop his quickness in order to offset his brother’s size advantage.
“Going up against him a lot in our driveway when I was younger, what helped me the most was developing my post moves and pivots,” Jackson said. “He was always bigger than me, so I had to counter with shot fake and shot fake.”
Now, Langendorf just makes shot after shot.
The 6-foot-6 junior forward scored 14 points Tuesday night as the Warriors prevailed for a 55-52 DuPage Valley Conference victory over host Naperville North.
Waubonsie (15-14, 4-6), which snapped a four-game losing streak, salvaged a series split with the Huskies (15-15, 4-6).
Langendorf used his size advantage to score key, consecutive layups on the baseline. He added eight rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.
At 6-6, Langendorf has a similar game to Carter, who was the starting center last year for the Warriors but is doing a postgraduate year at Oakleaf Academy in Jacksonville, Florida.
Like his brother, Jackson is a mobile and intelligent player whose passing game unlocks the attack.
That vision and passing out of the post creates multiple clean looks for Waubonsie, according to sophomore guard Tyler Threat.
“Our game plan was to get the ball to Jackson because he does everything for us in the middle,” Threat said. “They closed in on him and it really opened things up for our shooters.”
Threat scored a game-high 16 points Tuesday night for Waubonsie. His two free throws with 3.5 seconds left sealed the victory.
All four of Threat’s baskets were 3-pointers. The Warriors made nine shots from 3-point range. Waubonsie had six 3-pointers in the first half, building a 19-point lead.
“We just knocked down the open shots,” Threat said.
Senior forward Tyler Helbing added 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
“As a whole, I’d say our basketball IQ has made huge strides since the beginning of the year as far as passing and taking care of the basketball,” Langendorf said.
Down 30-16 at halftime, Naperville North roared back with a dominant third quarter.
Junior forward Jacob Nolen, who finished with 10 points, came off the bench to provide an infusion of energy and long range shooting of his own.
He drilled consecutive 3-pointers as the Huskies caught fire and unleashed an 18-0 run.
“I try to bring as much energy as I can,” Nolen said. “We didn’t have the greatest start and I tried to bring everything I could.”
Sophomore guard Luke Williams scored all 14 of his points in the final 11 minutes. He was hampered by three fouls in the first half.
Senior guard Zeke Williams finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals.
“It was the same scenario the first time we played,” Luke said. “We won the first half and they came back, but we were in control. We lost energy at the end.”
The game marked the final regular-season game for both teams.
Naperville North is the 12th seed and plays host next Wednesday to fifth-seeded Naperville Central.
“We have a whole week of practice to get our minds right for Central,” Luke Williams said.
Waubonsie, seeded eighth, plays West Aurora on Wednesday in a Joliet Central Regional semifinal. Langendorf believes the Warriors will be ready.
“It took some time to find our identity,” he said. “We were pretty confident coming into the season. Nobody was expecting too much of us and we wanted to prove them wrong.”
Patrick Z. McGavin is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.