It is not difficult to determine the origin of Campbell Thulin’s competitive streak.

The 5-foot-10 Downers Grove North junior guard is the youngest of five siblings. She has four older brothers from an athletic family, three of them standout football players who also played basketball.

“All throughout my childhood I would hang out with them, always end up in the driveway or a park playing some sort of game,” Thulin said. “That is where [the competitiveness] comes from is growing up with four brothers. It was really fun to me. I was never bored, and I’m still never bored.”

These days, Thulin is the catalyst of a 22-2 Downers Grove North team that’s ripped off eight straight wins and is leading the West Suburban Silver.

A third-year varsity starter who averages 14 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals, Thulin holds scholarship offers from BYU and Penn State.

Campbell was a freshman on the Downers Grove North team two years ago that won a program-record 30 games and lost to Waubonsie Valley in a sectional semifinal.

Wherever she ends up collegiately, Thulin is a kid who Downers Grove North Stephan Bolt said will be tough to keep off the floor.

“She’s a winner,” Bolt said. “I put her and Ellie Gross in the category of of competitive greatness. Ellie had to scratch and claw to do whatever she could; Campbell is much bigger in size than Ellie, but she is a competitor who will not let you off the hook. That’s something that is contagious. She kind of refuses to lose. Numbers and stats and scoring, all that stuff, she doesn’t care about it as much as just winning.”

Downers Grove North has done a whole lot of winning lately, seven consecutive 20-win seasons not including the COVID shortened season. The Trojans have won regional titles in four of the last five postseasons.

This could be one of Bolt’s best teams.

Along with Campbell, senior and Northern Michigan commit Ady Fanta is averaging 9 points and 3 rebounds per game. Sophomore Caitlin Sandridge is averaging 8 and promising 6-foot freshman Eva Yerkovich, who just collected a scholarship offer from Valparaiso, is at 7 points per game.

“For us to be where we are at record-wise, it’s a testament to them buying in,” Bolt said. “I like where we are at.”

That buy-in starts on defense, year in and year out the backbone of Bolt’s program.

“For me, freshman year, I got that message early on,” Campbell said. “If we get something wrong they’ll tell us. If we did it again we would have to run.”

Indeed, as Bolt put, if you’re going to get on the floor for Downers Grove North, you’re going to have to play defense.

“I feel like everybody knows as soon as you walk in the gym, you will either be there defensively or you will have to get better,” Fanta said. “There’s a standard we are held to in practice and in the program. Everybody knows when you play DGN you’re going to have to work for your shots.”

Campbell is clearly the focus of opposing scouting reports, but the Trojans have shown they can win in other ways.

Fanta and Sandridge hit two key 3-pointers in Saturday’s win over York. Yerkovich made a number of big shots, and had a game-saving block, in Downers Grove North’s win over Glenbard West Jan. 17.

“I was in a good spot, my teammates got me the ball and they had the confidence and trust in me,” said Fanta, who scored 14 points in the win over York. “It was something I had confidence to do.”

That Glenbard West win came in the middle of a recent three-game stretch over six days that is as impressive as any by a team this year.

Downers Grove North beat Maine South, Glenbard West and Libertyville, teams with a combined record of 59-14, rallying from down double digits at half in the last game. Thulin had 17 points and 13 rebounds and Yerkovich 14 points in the Libertyville win.

“We were dialed in and focused,” Fanta said. “We knew what we had to to do beat those teams.”

It’s good preparation for the postseason. Downers Grove North is at the Hinsdale Central Sectional with Nazareth and Kenwood the other top contenders.

“We put it out there that that stretch of games was kind of like a pseudo sectional, three good teams in a row,” Bolt said. “You have to be prepared to bring it every night.”

Conference races

Downers Grove North, up a game on Glenbard West, can clinch the Silver title outright with wins over Proviso West and Hinsdale Central.

In the Gold Division, Downers Grove South has a one-game lead with two left on Hinsdale South, who handed the Mustangs their first Gold loss 48-40 last weekend.

In the East Suburban Catholic, Benet is at 8-1 and Nazareth 7-1 after the Roadrunners’ 44-37 win over the Redwings Wednesday.

Meanwhile in the Upstate Eight East, defending champion Glenbard South (20-4, 10-0) leads Glenbard East (15-6, 8-1) with two games left, including the district rivals’ rematch next Friday. The Raiders won the first meeting, 54-23, on Jan. 9.