Ben Gillmar knew that Wheaton North needed a shift in energy quickly.

After allowing a buzzer-beating putback to end the first quarter tied with St. Charles North, the Falcons were hoping that a few adjustments would be the key to running away with a win.

One of those was feeding the ball into the 6-foot-5 forward in the post.

And once Gillmar felt the energy coming his way, he embraced it in full.

“It’s really easy to get hot and fuel off of that energy on the bench,” Gillmar said. “Once I get a few baskets, they all are just super positive and keep me going.”

Gillmar went on to score 24 of his career-high 28 points across the final three quarters, leading the visiting Falcons a 58-49 victory over the North Stars in the DuKane Conference.

“He’s a phenomenal athlete, and I may be a little too hard on him some times but when he’s on, he’s one of the best players in the state,” Falcons coach David Eaton said. “He does so many things well for us. We got him in some positions where the defense was running at him late, and he was able to attack the rim so consistently.”

The win was a redeeming one for the Falcons, who had lost to the North Stars 59-57 back on Dec. 10 on their home court.

And for Gillmar, who was 12 of 14 from the floor, it was a solid feeling to get redemption.

“I try not to get complacent, but that was a nice feeling in a fun game,” he said. “I didn’t play great against them last time and we just didn’t play great as a team, so it was great to get them back on that.”

The Falcons (14-8 overall, 4-5 DuKane) also made an adjustment on the defensive side of the ball in the second quarter, going more aggressive in their fullcourt press.

The result? A 13-2 run throughout the second quarter to give them a 30-19 heading into halftime.

“Our defense was just flying all over the place, and that’s something that we really pride ourselves on,” Eaton said. “We always say defense wins championships, and it takes a full team effort with as hard as we play.”

Besides Gillmar, senior Henry Schlickman added 15 points off of four 3-pointers, while senior Will Channing added nine off of the bench.

“That’s one of the things I like so much about this team, we can go inside-out whenever,” Gillmar said. “We have such great shooters, but also a bunch of guys that can bang it out in the post, and that versatility helps us out a lot.”

The second quarter mishaps proved to be too much for the North Stars (9-13, 4-5). Despite the lofty gap, they did manage to make a run in the fourth quarter, cutting the gap to as little as five points after entering the quarter down 44-31.

“We just made some rotation mistakes defensively and we didn’t take care of the basketball,” North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. “I don’t think it was forced, we just made too many mistakes on both ends. In this conference, you’ve got to be ready to go every night. We played hard, we just didn’t play organized and winning basketball for the majority of the game.”

Senior Cooper Mellican led the charge for the North Stars with 21 points, with 10 of them coming in the first quarter, including his buzzer-beating shot that tied the game at 17-17.

“Coop is just consistency, that’s just the word that really sums him up,” Poulin said. “Whether it’s in practice or in a game, he’s consistent with his approach and effort. We need everything that we get out of him, and we need to surround him with more production. When we do that, that’s when we play really good basketball.”