A trio of close contests highlighted the opening night of boys basketball action Friday in the Northern Lakes Conference.

League favorite Concord clipped defending champion Elkhart Memorial 51-46 in a league lid lifter in Dunlap. Minutemen senior star Franko House, who has signed to play at Ball State, led the winners with 19 points and nine rebounds. Memorial senior standout Markese McGuire led his team with 27 points and 10 rebounds.

Concord, which went 5-2 in the NLC last season, improves to 3-0. Memorial drops to 3-2.

NorthWood picked up a huge league road win by rallying for a 69-63 overtime win at Plymouth in a matchup of unbeatens. Jonathan Wilkinson scored 22 points to lead the Panthers, including 11 in the fourth quarter. Mack Mercer, Plymouth’s 6-9 junior, had 27 points and 15 rebounds.

NorthWood improves to 5-0 overall and Plymouth falls to 5-1.

Goshen also notched a close road win by edging Northridge 49-46 in Middlebury. Sam Stegelmann led Goshen with 15 points and Alex Hartsough made a pair of clutch free throws with 12.7 seconds to play.  Northridge’s Nate Ritchie, a 6-7 junior, led the Raiders with 22 points.

Goshen runs its overall season mark to 4-1 and Northridge now stands at 3-3.

Memorial won the NLC championship a year ago at 7-0. The Chargers, who went 24-2 and lost in the semi state, graduated four starters from that team. Concord and Plymouth tied for second in the league a year ago at 5-2, followed by Goshen (4-3), Warsaw (3-4), NorthWood (2-5), Northridge (2-5) and Wawasee (0-7).

The NLC schedule will resume after the first of the year. All eight teams return to action on Friday, Jan. 4 as the league slate has Northridge at Warsaw, Wawasee at NorthWood, Concord at Goshen and Memorial at Plymouth.