As the Crow flies

LEMONT -- Don't be fooled by the final score. Plainfield North High School defeated Chicago Ace Tech 69-53 at the Lemont Thanksgiving Tournament Monday night, but the game was not nearly as close as the final score may indicate.

The Tigers improved to 3-0 on the season, and out-manned the Bobcats from the outset.

"We made a point to come out with more intensity," North coach Nick DiForti said. "The first two games we had no intensity and were flat."

Against Sandburg last Tuesday night, the Tigers fell behind 19-1 before rallying to win.

"We have felt that our defense is going to create our offense, and tonight our defense played a big role in the win," DiForti said.

A 3-point field goal by Chris Whitehead, who started in place of Chris McMath, spotted the Tigers a quick 3-0 lead. After Mike Klett converted a steal into a layup, point guard Reggie Lemon found Scott Vachon underneath for an easy basket and North owned a quick 7-0 advantage.

North went on to build a 21-5 lead during the first quarter as the Bobcats were only able to connect on 2-of-13 field goal attempts.

"No. 30 (Dave Armstrong) is a very good player for them," DiForti said. "We threw four different players against him to keep fresh legs in the game."

Armstrong misfired on all five of his field goal attempts in the first quarter, and although he led the Bobcats with 16 points, the Tigers had built a comfortable lead before he got into the flow of the game offensively.

With North holding a 23-10 advantage with just under 6:00 to play in the first half, Ryan Crow caught fire from the outside for the Tigers.

Crow connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the lead to 29-10. He scored 11 of his game-high 20 points in the second quarter.

The third quarter, though, was when the Tigers defense put the game away. While forcing Ace Tech into seven turnovers, North used a 15-2 run to stretch a 40-20 halftime lead into an insurmountable 55-22 tally.

That enabled DiForti to dole out some valuable playing time for the supporting cast.

"Every game, one of the goals for our top six or seven guys is to get the other kids into the ballgame. Tonight we were able to get guys in who haven't played much," DiForti said.

The game marked the first action of the season for Kendall Frank, who is recovering from being inadvertently poked in the eye at practice. Frank scored 10 points for North, while Vachon and Klett added 9 points apiece.

McMath was limited in practice due to an injury to his left wrist, and was held out of the game as a precaution.

The Bobcats, who dressed eight players, put on a frantic rally in the final 2:30, but it was too little too late.

When Keaton Willis canned a short jumper for North with 2:37 remaining, the Tigers owned a 69-40 lead. The pesky Bobcats, though, were not quite through.

Making the most of 10 fourth-quarter turnovers by North, Ace Tech closed out the scoring with 13 unanswered points.

The Tigers will close out the tournament when they face host Lemont at 7:15 tonight.