Falcons Boys Take First Two Games At Elgin

ELGIN - Wheaton North's boys basketball team has been on the win/loss rollercoaster at the start of the season.

Winning streaks have been at a premium thus far for the Falcons, but they have opened the Elgin Tournament up with a pair of wins that have them feeling like they are on the right track.

Tuesday's 66-61 win over a solid Buffalo Grove team has Wheaton North off to a 2-0 start in the tournament. Their reward is a date with unbeaten Neuqua Valley in the tournament semifinals Wednesday at 8 p.m.

"It definitely helps confidence-wise," Wheaton North senior Jeff Schalk said. "We've been up and down as a team. Getting two straight wins is huge for us, especially the way we've been playing. It's the way that we've been trying to do it all year and we're really just trying to get back to the basics and doing everything we need to do."

The Falcons (6-4) trailed by two after a quarter, but a 9-0 run and a buzzer-beater at the half from Jordan Wayhart gave Wheaton North a 28-21 lead at the break. Schalk keyed the 9-0 run with six of his team-high 15 points.

Schalk, who has been a starter off-and-on since he was a sophomore, is coming off the bench these days, something he says he's grown comfortable with.

"He has (been coming off the bench), but he's not a 'bench' player," Wheaton North coach Jim Nazos said. "He's as good as anybody we have. He makes us better instantly when he goes in the game. He is somebody that just provides us a spark right away and makes us better right away when he goes into the game."

The Falcons pushed the lead to 41-30 in the third on a Sam Otto lay-up. But Buffalo Grove (8-3) wasn't finished. An 8-0 run cut the lead to 41-38. Wheaton North seemed to stem the tide by scoring the first six points of the fourth to open a 50-40 lead with 5:55 left, but Nazos wasn't comfortable.

"Not with the way they shoot the ball," Nazos said. "Ten for them is three possessions and it's a dogfight again. Against that team, you can never feel comfortable."

The Bison's Luke Potnick, who shared game scoring honors with teammate Sam Wacker with 16 points, singlehandedly made sure the Falcons were on edge. He scored 10 straight Buffalo Grove points to cut the lead to 54-50.

But the Falcons did enough on defense and from the free-throw line to keep the Bison at arm's length. Next up is a showdown with 11-0 Neuqua Valley.

"It's huge for us," Schalk said. "The past two years, we struggled in this tournament, and just in general in the season. Playing a team like Neuqua is huge for us. We hope we can step up."

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