Aurora Central Catholic nips St. Edward
Great start. Great finish.
Outscoring St. Edward 26-5 in the first and fourth quarters, Aurora Central Catholic was able to pull out a 44-40 Metro Suburban West boys basketball win over the Green Wave Friday night in Elgin.
St. Edward won an earlier meeting between the two teams 73-58.
‘We played awful defensively the first time we played them,” said ACC coach Nathan Drye. “We re-evaluated our defense after that game. They have two really good guards and we knew we had to guard them on the perimeter and stop their penetration.”
The Chargers' Kyle Czerak scored the first points of the game on a 3-pointer with 6:18 remaining in the first quarter. The Green Wave's only points of the quarter came on a 12-footer in the lane by Andrew O' Neill with 5:40 remaining to make the score 3-2.
The Chargers (2-4, 1-1), with 7 points from Brett Czerak and 4 by Nick Faltz, scored the final 11 points of the quarter and held a 14-2 advantage after 8 minutes.
After a slow start, St. Edward turned the tables on the Chargers, outscoring the visitors 35-18 in the second and third quarters and led 37-32 heading into the final 8 minutes of play.
After making only 1-of-8 shots from the field for 13 percent in the first quarter the Green Wave, led by 13 points from Adam Radcliffe including three 3-pointers and 11 points from Kevin Cortez-Harvey, were 13-of-18 from the floor (72 percent) and 5-of-6 (83 percent) from 3-point range during the middle 2 quarters.
The Chargers sliced into the Green Wave's advantage in the fourth quarter and took the lead for good on a conventional 3-point play by Czerak with 1:18 left. Czerak canned the contested 5-footer and swished the free throw to give the Chargers a 42-40 advantage.
Nick Faltz sealed the win with 2 free throws in the last 30 seconds. Czerak led the Chargers with 16 points and Faltz scored 12.
“We were talking and communicating well on defense especially in the first quarter,” said Czerak. ‘This is a tough gym to play in so this is a big win.”
Radcliffe led St. Edward (5-6, 0-2) with 13 points followed by Cortez-Harvey with 11 and O'Neill 10.
“I kept telling them to wait out the storm in first quarter,” said St. Edward coach PJ White. “I have to do a better job of putting us in position to win.”