Aurora Central trips up Glenbard South
The Aurora Central Catholic boys basketball team maintained its grip on first place in the Metro Suburban Blue Tuesday by putting on a shooting clinic in a 68-58 victory over visiting Glenbard South.
Knotted in a three-way tie to start the game with Glenbard South (11-12, 6-3) and IC Catholic Prep, ACC (17-5, 7-2) made 12 of its 20 first-half shot attempts, including 6 of 9 from 3-point range, to take a 30-21 halftime lead. Glenbard South never came closer than 8 points the rest of the game.
Brett Czerak scored 8 of his game-best 24 points in the first quarter while Kyle Czerak scored 8 of his 17 points in the second quarter. The brothers combined to shoot 13 of 20 from the field.
"Ideally, we're playing our best when we're able to knock down shots," ACC coach Nate Drye said. " Brett kind of got the lid off the basket right away, which was good. Then I thought Kyle had a huge second quarter to kind of extend the lead out. We're pretty confident when we can play from the lead because it's really hard to rush for points against the zone."
ACC remains tied for first place with IC Catholic Prep (16-7, 7-2), which defeated Fenton 62-50.
"We knew this was a tough one. We needed it," said Kyle Czerak, who made 4 of 5 attempts from 3-point range. "So we're good to get this one. We've got to keep it going. We've got another tough game coming up. We have to beat (Riverside-Brookfield) on Friday."
Glenbard South shot well itself, just not as well as the Chargers. The Raiders made 21 of 46 shots from the field (45.7 percent), led by 23 points from junior guard Brandon Whiteside and senior center Charlie Bair's 17 points. However, Glenbard South couldn't match ACC's efficiency from 3-point range, making only 3 of 15 attempts.
"They stayed disciplined offensively," Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke said of the Chargers. "They made us work defensively and any time we took a break they were able to capitalize on it and hit a big shot. Certainly, they've got some shooters and when you give them open looks, especially on their home court, they're going to knock them down. Unfortunately, we got down early and kind of were never able to crack that 8-point spread."
Glenbard South stayed in the game through a half by outrebounding ACC 10-6. The Chargers won the battle of the boards 10-7 in the second half, negating much of Glenbard South's offense.
"We got a lot more physical on the glass," said Brett Czerak, who had 6 rebounds. "That's really where they were scoring a lot in the first half. Once we locked down the boards it was a much easier game."