Schedule helped prepare Aurora Central

Aurora Central Catholic lost to Metea Valley by 24 points. The Chargers lost to Waubonsie Valley by 10. Plainfield Central beat ACC by 26 points.

None of those results, which came against three of the eight Class 4A teams Aurora Central faced during the regular season, matter right now.

But strength of schedule was huge for the Chargers, who took Rockford East’s best shot Friday night and roared back at the Class 3A Woodstock North sectional championship for an 85-82 overtime victory.

“I think it’s the reason we won this game,” said Chargers junior forward Robert DeMyers, who had another stellar outing with 18 points, 13 rebounds and 6 blocks before fouling out in overtime.

“We’ve always been outmanned, you could say. They’ve had bigger pools to pull from. But I think just the constant close games of the season have just really prepared us to shine now.”

“This is why you do what you do, to get us in this position,” said Chargers coach Nathan Drye. “(Rockford East) didn’t throw anything at us that we hadn’t seen all year. Our guys just kept playing and battling because they’ve been through the wars, they played in a ton of big games.

“It was, but it’s not a new situation for them. They’ve been on big stages against good, quick teams. It’s just, you know, what we do.”

It’s what they do, and partially who they played that enabled the Chargers not to flinch when the E-Rabs led 69-64 with 1:39 left in regulation play.

There was no fear.

“Not at all,” said Chargers senior guard and 24-point scorer Ryan Harreld, who canned two 3-pointers in the last 1:18 of regulation, the second to send the game into overtime tied 72-72.

“We have nothing to lose. Throughout the season we had a tough schedule, I think, and that prepared us for situations just like this,” said Harreld, who also snagged 3 key steals when ACC made its move in the fourth quarter.

“I didn’t have any nerves, honestly. I just went out there and played. It was fun.”

DeMyers wouldn’t call it fun sitting on the bench, where he ended up after fouling out at 1:19 in overtime. Then again he wasn’t doing much sitting, in front of a rowdy blue-and-yellow ACC student section that swamped the court when it was over.

“I’m not used to that,” DeMyers said of his disqualification, “but I think that’s the most adrenaline I’ve ever felt in my life. I couldn’t sit still, I was constantly moving and jumping every time something big happened.”

Like Joe Medgyesi’s 3-pointer around a Kent Brauweiler pick and over a Joey McEachern screen that put the Chargers ahead 78-76 at 1:36 left in overtime, ACC’s first lead since the second quarter, 27-26.

It takes confidence in big games to take that shot.

“I just did what I thought I should do and shot it, and it went in,” Medgyesi said.

Brauweiler, a veteran of many of these wars, followed with a transition basket and even though Rockford East’s Javon Henderson had a decent shot at the end to tie, the E-Rabs came up short against the Chargers’ experience.

“I think a lot of times teams play down to their competition, and when you play great teams you can’t play down to them, you have to play up to them,” said Brauweiler, who will play college football at Iowa Wesleyan.

He said “absolutely” ACC’s tough regular season, during which it lost four of its first five games and was 5-8 after the Waubonsie Valley Holiday Tournament, strengthened the Chargers.

“Those tournaments that we played in, those Rock Islands and all them that we played, they definitely prepared us for games like this when we’re down and we have to come back,” Brauweiler said.

Ah yes, Rock Island. The Rocks, who beat ACC 82-66 on Feb. 12, face ACC on Tuesday at the 3A Northern Illinois University supersectional.

Were it not for competition like that, Drye said ACC might be a “20-, 25-win team” rather than 17-13.

“But that’s not what it’s about,” said the coach, who won the big game with his parents watching in the stands. “It’s about getting ready to play in this game, and that’s what we did. We put our kids through a grinder, played against great teams in order to prepare us for this situation. And it pays off.

“God bless the kids, they just kept fighting in those games and it got them ready for tonight, they never quit. They just kept playing all the way to the end.”

Though tested, there’s still room for youthful excitement.

“I’ve never experienced this,” Harreld said. “This is awesome. We’re going to keep playing, we’re going to keep going.”