Opening night delight Unbeatens Wheaton North, West Aurora highlight DVC's first games.(Sports Extra) - Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)

Byline: David Oberhelman and Kevin Schmit Daily Herald Sports Writers

Wheaton North opens up conference play at home tonight with two- time DuPage Valley champion West Aurora in a battle of unbeatens.

The Falcons beat West Aurora (3-0) twice last year to account for the Blackhawks' only DVC losses.

'I'm sure they remember it,' said Wheaton North coach Jim Nazos, whose team was the champion of the St. Charles East Thanksgiving Tournament.

The Falcons (3-0) are slowly working in five members of their state semifinal football team, including junior Nate Hardwick who had games of 14 and 11 points.

Dan Walser was named MVP at St. Charles East. Derek Meister averaged 13 points per game.

It'll be a tough matchup against West Aurora sophomore guard Jay Thomas, junior forward Dameon Mason and senior Kris Jenkins.

Difference makers: Glenbard North won the District 87 tournament by going 3-0, while Naperville North posted a 2-2 record at the tough Neuqua Valley tournament.

It's a far cry from last year's 0-13 combined start that resulted from both school's football playoff run.

'I thought we had a real good tournament,' said Naperville North coach Mark Lindo.

Huskies senior Mike Benning averaged 17 points per game. In their two wins, four different players reached double-digit scoring.

Glenbard North beat its district rivals behind the trio of Greg Klos, Steve Fifarek and Joel Pelland.

Naperville Central struggled through a shorthanded effort at Fenton due to the football team's appearance in the 8A title game.

The Redhawks went 2-2, powered by a strong performance by senior Ted Van Dorn, who scored 74 points in four games.

'It's going to take a long time for the football players to work back in,' said Redhawks coach Bob Sterr. 'They're pretty banged up.'

Surprise, surprise: Fenton and Lake Park struggled through six- and five-win seasons, respectively, last season. Both teams quickly set out to redeem themselves.

Fenton, getting 25 and 24 points from guard Giacomo Losacco in consecutive games, went 3-1 at its own Chuck Mitchell Tournament, good for third place.

Lake Park coach Dan Batka wasted no time infusing his lineup with young talent. Junior forward Matt Petralia and sophomore guard Ryan Cibulka averaged double figures, helping the Lancers go 2-2 at Fenton.

Net effects: Both Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley, the finalists at Neuqua's Wildcat Classic, can take things from the results.

'Hopefully we can use it for a springboard for the next set of games,' Waubonsie Valley coach Dave Saurbaugh said in the wake of the Warriors' 50-44 victory over Neuqua Valley in the title game.

Waubonsie Valley, which will be tested tonight in its Upstate Eight Conference opener at DeKalb (3-1), got all-tourney performances from point guard Derrick Clanton and center Marc Daniels, plus good outings by role players Jeff Sassano, Andrew Umbach and Morris Ellis.

'We showed that we can compete against some teams that are supposed to be pretty good basketball teams,' Saurbaugh said.

One of those is Neuqua Valley (3-1), whose coach, Todd Sutton, saw mixed results.

'We started out like gangbusters and kind of hit the slides,' he said. 'I think we got a lot of contributions on the first night and not a lot of contributions (on subsequent dates).

That showed against Waubonsie Valley when all-tourney players Keelan Amelianovich and Josh Wesley were limited to 12 points apiece, down from prior efforts.

Waubonsie Valley's defense held the Wildcats to 44 points, 12 fewer than their prior low and 48 less than in their opening-night win over Hinsdale South.

Neuqua Valley enters UEC play tonight at Elgin (1-3) then plays host to Bolingbrook on Saturday.

300 and counting: With Lisle's 74-57 victory over Driscoll at the Lisle Thanksgiving Tournament, coach Mark D'Amico won the 300th game of his career.

That's nice, but he probably would have preferred to see win No. 301. Instead, Timothy Christian beat Lisle (2-1) 45-40 for the title.

Led by Kevin VanderWal's rebounding and point guard Jeremiah Banks' clutch free throws and defense on Lisle's Terence Parker, Timothy (2-1) held Lisle to 25 percent shooting.

The Trojans aim to keep rolling tonight at Wheaton Academy (1- 2), while Lisle looks to regroup at Plano (3-1).

'I didn't think we took control of the game,' D'Amico said of the Timothy game. 'Last year I thought we controlled almost all the games we played, even the ones we lost.'

Other top games: Glenbard North (3-0) at West Chicago (2-1)... Wheaton Warrenville South (2-1) at Naperville North (2-2)... Hinsdale Central (3-0) at WW South (Saturday)... Lake Park (2-2) at Bartlett (4-0)... Montini (2-1) at St. Edward (2-1)... Lyons (1-2) at York (2-2).