Ondik, Redhawks head to title game

Three games into his varsity career, Naperville Central junior point guard Danny Ondik has shown Redhawks coach Pete Kramer that he can manage the biggest task he'll be asked to take on this year:

Taking care of the basketball.

"Ondik was outstanding tonight," Kramer said after the Redhawks' 53-36 win over Fenton on Wednesday. "He's just a very heady player."

Wednesday's win by Naperville Central (3-0) put them in Friday's title game of Fenton's Chuck Mitchell Thanksgiving Tournament, where they'll take on Rolling Meadows (3-0).

Ondik and Drew Crawford led the Redhawks with 12 points apiece, while Matt Neufeld scored 11 and Matt Jones chipped in 8. Crawford started slow but got people involved as Ondik buried a trio of 3-pointers in the first quarter to get his squad an early cushion.

"As good as Drew is, he's a really good team player," Ondik said. "He looks to dish it off and make his team better."

The Redhawks also got good minutes from Mike Schmitz.

The Redhawks led 19-12 after a slow offensive first half and maintained a 7-point lead through the third before scoring 22 point in the final quarter for the win.

"We picked our defense up, and when you do that your offense gets going," Kramer said. "And I thought we executed well, late in the game."

Every time Fenton (1-2) whittled its deficit down to 7 points in the second half, Naperville Central stayed composed and answered with a basket. Matt Neufeld scored nine of his 11 points in the third quarter to stem Fenton's push, and Crawford scored 8 of his 12 for the game in the final period.

"Neufeld scored some big buckets for us," Kramer said. "He goes up strong."

Gozie Umeadi attacked the basket hard in trying to bring Fenton back, but the Redhawks never buckled.

"We knew coming into the game that (Umeadi) was their best offensive threat," Ondik said. "We just played good help (defense) and worked as a team."

Umeadi and Damian Sieradzki scored 15 points apiece -- 30 of the team's 36 points for the game.

"When that happens, we'll have some difficulty winning," said Fenton coach Dennis Cromer. "Every team that has success has three players in double figures somewhere along the line."

"We've got to work on our offense, but in a tournament like this, there's just no time to work on it," Umeadi said. "But we'll keep working hard at it. I know my guys can do it."