Aurora Central learned a lot

Aurora Central Catholic’s boys basketball team may very well have flooded their locker room with puddles of tears.

Having five months of hard work abruptly end with Tuesday’s 72-55 loss to Rock Island at the Class 3A Northern Illinois University supersectional, the Chargers deserved that right.

Inside the Convocation Center’s subterranean media room, however, the face of Chargers co-captain Ryan Harreld seemed flushed with exertion much more than emotion.

Disappointed, absolutely. Crestfallen and beaten up, not so.

“I usually just keep my head up and fight through it, push through it,” Harreld said. “It’s not the end of the world. We had a great season. I’m happy for that.”

If high school athletics is indeed an extension of the classroom, Aurora Central’s boys have learned a life lesson on the court.

“Just never give up, ever,” said Harreld, who scored a team-high 18 points in his last prep basketball game. “No matter what everyone thinks you can still prove people wrong.”

From a 13-13 record entering the playoffs and a 5-8 mark well before that, ACC rallied to a playoff level it hadn’t reached in two decades, since 1991.

“I learned that we’re just never going to give up until it’s over,” said Robert DeMyers, the 6-foot-4 junior forward who shared captain duties with Harreld and senior forward Tim Fernandez.

DeMyers said he felt that way “probably the whole year.” But when the going got tough, these guys got really tough.

“When the playoffs started we just started all clicking, and we got ourselves into situations where we could come through,” said DeMyers, who scored 12 points Tuesday with a team-high 6 rebounds.

Similarly, coach Nathan Drye switched form to put the Chargers in position to succeed against a team that on Feb. 12 took a 34-10 lead over ACC.

Drye veered from his standard 2-3 zone defense to a diamond-and-one isolating Stanford-bound guard Chasson Randle. The scheme initially worked, limiting Randle to one basket in a first-quarter the Rocks led just 19-15.

“We have worked on that all year but given in a supersectional you see us standing around a little bit,” said Rock Island coach Thom Sigel.

“At the beginning it really affected us,” Randle said, “because we kind of stood around like coach said, and we really couldn’t get a rhythm going on the offensive end. But once we did we really didn’t have any trouble.”

Randle was right, a 15-1 run early in the third quarter causing major separation after the Chargers cut their deficit to 34-29.

“It’s hard to make up a double-digit lead against them,” Drye said. “They’re just too good, they’re too good defensively to rip off a 10-0 run. Our guys battled, but it’s just too hard.”

ACC’s tough mindset remained till there was no doubt in their minds Rock Island would advance.

“It probably didn’t hit me until about 1:30 (left) in the fourth quarter and then it just came at me like a ton of bricks,” DeMyers said.

Interestingly, both players who guarded Randle, starter Joe Medgyesi and Anthony Andujar off the bench, are sophomores.

The Chargers graduate Harreld, Fernandez, Max Abens and Kent Brauweiler but return a slew of underclassmen like sophomore guard Matt Meyers, who came in for some late thunder beyond the 3-point arc.

DeMyers said this playoff run “definitely” provides the basis for next season. Harreld agreed.

“It’ll definitely spark up the younger kids,” Harreld said. “Half this team is pretty much like sophomores, so we’ll have a pretty good program for the next couple years.”

Drye said he “couldn’t have been any prouder of our guys and the way they battled tonight.”

Naturally, he hopes next year goes a step further.

He’s got the raw materials.

“I just learned that we’ve got great kids. We’re blessed with great kids who keep working,” he said. “They’re dedicated to what we want them to do, and I was very happy for them that they got to go through this.”