Boys Basketball: Huskies catch fire in 2nd half to down Trojans

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Updated: February 2, 2012 4:10PM

Oak Park-River Forest started slowly in a half-court game that was more to the liking of host Downers Grove North. But when it found a way to quicken the pace, senior guard Ka’Darryl Bell led the charge and the Huskies came from behind to beat the Trojans 60-49 Thursday night.

Bell had only one basket in the first quarter, but scored seven of his team’s nine points in the second and tallied 11 more after halftime to go with three big steals to help bring his team back after it led by only three points midway through the third quarter.

The Huskies trailed 28-26 at halftime, but they came out fired up after the break as Bell (game-high 20 points), Jakari Cammon (4 points, 4 steals, 5 rebounds) and Gabe Levin (12 points, 8, rebounds, 4 steals) fired up the offense and turned a 44-42 advantage early in the fourth period into a 56-44 cushion with a 12-2 run with just over 2 minutes left to play.

“Our team is notorious for starting slow,” Bell said. “It’s not something that’s new to us, but it’s kind of a bad habit that we have. We always seem to think we can come out in the third quarter and will our way into heating things up, but it’s one of those things that haunt us.

“I just started to be more aggressive in the second quarter and after that. I think my ‘takeover’ mentality kicks in when we need to put points on the board. We can’t keep trading buckets with this team because they are a lot better than their record would show. They always give us a good game, especially in their gym.”

The Huskies (12-4, 5-1 West Suburban Silver) took the lead 17-16 when Bell hit a layup at the buzzer for his first bucket. It looked earlier as though Downers North (4-12, 0-6) might be on its way to an upset after a three-point shooting clinic put on by guard Davis Skirgaila (team-high 16 points). The junior guard hit nothing but nylon as he connected on four straight shots from beyond the arc in the first quarter. The Huskies decided then that they had to do something on defense to stop him. He only hit one more shot, another three, the rest of the game, but got off only two more shot attempts after the opening period.

“After he hit those first four shots, three from the exact same spot, we had a chaser on him the rest of the game,” OPRF head coach Matt Maloney said. “We knew he was a shooter but we didn’t expect him to get that hot that quick. He made us change up our defense a bit. We had to be conscious of where he was at all the time. I give them (Downers Grove North) a lot of credit. They had a perfect game plan, we just made enough plays down the stretch to turn things our way.”

After a slam dunk by Downers Grove North forward Rob Mahlke (9 points, 5 rebounds) cut the OPRF lead to 44-42, the Huskies came roaring back with a big fourth quarter from Levin. His rebound of a missed shot resulted in a rim rattling jam and sparked the Huskies as they swiped the ball from the Trojans six times in the fourth, including another two-handed slam by Levin.

“I told our guys they (Downers North) were going to slow things down and get physical and we don’t like that style,” Maloney said. “Finally in the fourth quarter things got back to our system. Our number one goal was to push the tempo and for three quarters we didn’t initiate anything offensively or defensively to speed that game up. In the fourth quarter we decided to do that and we woke up and made some big plays that helped us squeak one out.”

Alex Nesnidal chipped in 11 points for the Huskies while Virgil Allen came off the bench and added six points, three rebounds and a block. The Trojans received nine points each from Dave Henson and Dennis Blake.

Downers Grove North starting forward Dave Edwards, a 6-foot-5 freshman, said he and the rest of the team know they are better than their record might indicate.

“We needed to get stops and execute on defense in the fourth and we weren’t able to do that,” said Edwards, who had two points and three rebounds. “On offense, when we were screening and cutting, we were firing on all cylinders and then I think we just got tired and the execution just wasn’t there any more.

“It also was our fault we couldn’t get the ball to Davis (Skirgaila) in the second half. We had to get him open after he hit those shots early and we just didn’t do that. We have a great group of guys. We just have to get stronger and be tougher toward the end of games. We can play with teams like this, we just have to stay tough and execute in late-game situations.”