Niles West looks good in CSL North debut
This past summer the Central Suburban League witnessed its conference undergo a realignment when member schools Niles West and Deerfield traded spots with the Wolves moving from the CSL South Division to the CSL North and the Warriors changing from North to South.
With that in mind, Niles West welcomed Vernon Hills Friday night for their CSL North debut Friday night.
After the first 16 minutes of basketball were played it appeared that the Wolves weren't very welcoming to their new division mates. They used a pair of strong starts in each of the first two periods to post a decisive 61-33 win in Skokie that left both teams at 4-2 overall on the young season.
The Wolves (1-0 in CSL North play) ran off to an 11-0 lead over part one of opening quarter of play that 6-3 senior forward Joey Pantazis capped off with a triple for 3 of his game-high 13 with 3:55 left in the first.
The Cougars (0-1 in the North) outscored the home team 9-5 in part two of the first as 6-1 sophomore swingman Brady Larsen's triple with three ticks left pulled them within 18-9.
That's when the Wolves took over with a dominant performance over nearly the first five minutes of the period. They went on an 18-0 surge that left them comfortably ahead 36-9 on a three-point play by senior guard Dave Flowers (9 points) at the 3:07 mark before a trey by senior guard Dylan Chung (team-high 9 points) ended the run with 2:03 remaining in the first half.
Niles West took a 36-14 advantage at halftime.
The visitors could get no closer than 17 twice in the third on a hoop from fellow senior Dylan Einhorn with 2:36 left in the quarter.
Pantazis praised his coach Mike Wasielewski on a rigorous week of practice that focused on defense which led to holding Vernon Hills to 11-of-45 shooting (24%).
"Our coach emphasized (that) all week in practice," Pantazis said. "We played man-to-man, did a bunch of drills. We focused on that a lot. The shots (on offense) just came along with it. We feel good about ourselves, but there's always something to improve on."
The Wolves' 6-4 senior forward Aidn Custovic added 12 points and 6 rebounds which was second to the 9 boards procured by Flowers. The Wolves travel to Lakes Tuesday before traveling to the other side of Skokie to face arch rival Niles North Friday in CSL North play.
The Cougars host Grayslake Central on Tuesday prior to returning to divisional action hosting Highland Park on Friday.
"Niles West really came ready to play, they did a great job in transition," Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said. "After a long halftime talk about offensive possessions, we did some better things in the third quarter but we just ran out of juice. Give (them) all the credit."