Redhawks take tourney title
By the time he fouled out on Friday, Superman had already saved the planet.
Naperville Central (4-0) got teamwide efforts, to be sure in its 67-61 boys basketball win over Rolling Meadows (3-1), but the second-half play of Redhawks' junior Drew Crawford bordered on the ludicrous.
"He's a great player," said Rolling Meadows senior Kyle Gaedele. "He took over the game."
Through 2½ quarters of the title game of Fenton's Chuck Mitchell Thanksgiving Tournament, the Mustangs were the superior team, using physical, hard-nosed defense and hot 3-point shooting to build a 14-point lead mid-way through the third quarter.
Of Rolling Meadows' 10 first-half field goals, 7 were 3-pointers against the Redhawks' zone. Kevin Serna hit a trio of 3-point shots, Ty Kirk buried 2, and Gaedele and Dan McCarthy hit 1 apiece.
The Mustangs also made the Redhawks work for every point they scored.
"We played well and talked at halftime about keeping it up," said Mustangs coach Kevin Katovich. "And for the first couple minutes of the second half, we did.
"Then it was like our brains fell out, we stopped executing … and Crawford made some big plays."
The Mustangs extended their lead to 45-31 after a Will Trunk 3 and a Gaedele three-point play in the third quarter, but that's when the Redhawks' man-to-man defense and Crawford took over.
In the span of a minute, the junior hit a jump shot, a 3, and stole a pass to score on a breakaway layup. Then he stole another pass to set up a pair of Matt Neufeld free throws that cut the deficit to 45-40.
"He can drive the lane, hit the shot, make the free throws or find the open man," Neufeld said. "He's just an all-around great player."
A Crawford 3 tied the score 49-49 in the fourth before a pair of Danny Ondik free throws gave the Redhawks their first lead since 2-0. A Crawford three-point play with three minutes left gave his team a 4-point lead it wouldn't relinquish.
The tournament MVP finished with 21 points, 5 rebounds, 4 blocks, 5 assists, and 3 steals before fouling out with 43 seconds left.
"I realize that when we're down sometimes I have to try to see what I can do myself and get my teammates involved," Crawford said.
"But we just played great as a team, I think."
Neufeld netted 16 points and Ondik was steady again for the Redhawks, as both were named to the all-tournament team. Mike Schmitz's defense was also invaluable to his squad's win on Friday, and "anybody who played tonight, played their tail off," Kramer said.
After falling behind by 14, the Redhawks outscored the Mustangs 36-16 to the final buzzer.
-- Gary Larsen
Batavia 64, St. Francis 53:ŒHad they played a fifth quarter, the outcome might have been different. But the final buzzer intervened, putting an end to a furious fourth-quarter rally by St. Francis.
It couldn't come soon enough for Batavia, which saw its 31-point lead whittled down to 10 before taking hold of a 64-53 victory in the second round of the Ken Peddy Windmill Classic.
What shaped up as a rout -- and it was that for three quarters -- turned into an offensive explosion for St. Francis (1-1) in the final eight minutes, when the Spartans scored nearly as many points (26) as they had in the first three quarters combined (27).
But it couldn't atone for the Spartans' early difficulties. Batavia (2-0) hit St. Francis with a 15-2 blitz to open the game, and St. Francis' uphill struggle was only beginning.
Unable to penetrate Batavia's 2-3 zone defense -- anchored by the trio of 6-foot-5 Jordan Smith, 6-5 Nick Fruendt and 6-5 Ricky Clopton -- St. Francis lofted wayward jumpers from afar with little success.
It wasn't long before Batavia's Dog Pound was chanting "double digits." When Phil Albrecht nailed a 3-pointer early in the second quarter, it put Batavia up 25-9.
Fruendt scored 13 of his game-high 17 points in the first half as the Bulldogs maintained their cushion for a 33-17 halftime lead while St. Francis managed just 7 field goals.
"Against a team the caliber of Batavia, you have to hit some shots early and we just weren't able to," St. Francis coach Shawn Healy said. "We couldn't get anything offensively and weren't hitting the few (open) shots we were getting. You have to perform at a high level when you play on their floor, and we weren't able to do that."
"Until the fourth quarter I think we did a good job with our intensity," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said.
It disappeared in the fourth as Dan McCoy and Jeff How caught fire, combining for 18 points in the period. St. Francis opened the quarter with a 14-2 run, and though Batavia's lead was never in jeopardy, it caught the Bulldogs' attention as Roberts was forced to reinsert his starters.
"They outscrapped us and made us pay for our lack of execution," Roberts said. "We were willing to trade baskets and, next thing you know, we're chasing."
-- Jeff Long
Maine West 65, Lisle 37:ŒFor the second straight game Lisle played sluggish defense in the first quarter, leading to a fourth straight loss in the Thanksgiving tournament that bears its name.
The Lions (0-4) entered their game with Maine West determined to stop Warriors junior Jimmy Orlowski. While they succeeded in that task, they failed to stop Maine West's Adis Kadiric, who scored 12 first-quarter points on four 3-point baskets.
"We really felt like two nights in a row, we've come out (doing) less than what we needed to do on defense," Lisle coach Mark LaScala said. "We're not a team that comes from behind very well, so we need to fix that and come out in the game with more defensive intensity.
"We game planned a little bit more against (Orlowski), and (Kadiric) stepped right in and really hurt us."
Lisle entered halftime trailing by 12 points, after a last-second 3 by Lisle senior guard Andrew Rapciak.
Rapciak's 3-pointer would be the last offensive highlight the Lions would have, though, as LaScala's inexperienced squad managed just 12 points total in the third and fourth quarters.
"We had a tough time getting going," LaScala said. "I think our shot selection was poor. Our decision-making needs to get better, but you're not going to win many games with 12 points in the second half."
While the first quarter definitely put the Lions in a hole, the third quarter all but iced the game for Maine West. The Warriors (1-3) had no trouble with their offense coming out of halftime, outscoring Lisle 11-5 to take an 18-point lead.
-- Matthew McClarey
Wheaton North 55, East Aurora 51:ŒThe Falcons (3-0) advanced to the St. Charles East tournament championship game at 7:45 p.m. today against St. Joseph behind Kristian Rosenberger's 18 points. John Bagge added 12 points and Tom Fitzpatrick 10.
Stagg 53, Willowbrook 44:ŒMilton Colbert scored 13 points for the Warriors in the losing effort at the Lemont-Stagg Thanksgiving Tournament.
Lake Forest Academy 46, Lake Park 37:ŒJunior Jason Sotira led the Lancers (2-2) with 13 points in the third-place game at the Fenton tournament.
South Elgin 55, Fenton 50:ŒIn the fifth-place game at the Fenton tournament, Damian Sieradzki scored 17 points and Billy Gratzl 16 for the host Bison (1-3).
North Lawndale 82, Timothy Christian 46:ŒAt the Lisle tourney Andrew Logan led the Trojans (3-1) with 10 points and 5 rebounds.
Girls basketball
Geneva 55, Wheaton Academy 31:ŒIt was a journey Wheaton Academy could ill afford to make.
The Warriors went 10 minutes of their pool-play game against Geneva without scoring, and the Vikings made them pay.
The Vikings scored 21 unanswered points during the Warriors' dry spell and eased to a 55-31 victory at the 20th annual girls basketball tournament in Geneva.
Nicole Gregory scored a career-high 18 points for the Vikings, who won their third straight game to start the season. They will face Providence, which defeated Rosary 57-43, in the championship game today.
"It helps that we have a lot of speed and quickness," said Gregory, who had 12 of her new personal high in the opening half, which saw Geneva leading 27-14 at the break. "As a whole, we recognize the fastbreak well."
It was Taylor Whitley who once again engineered the Vikings' attack.
The junior standout, overcoming foul problems, scored 11 points, grabbed 9 rebounds and handed out 5 assists to lead her team to its third consecutive one-sided win.
The Vikings' running game was in midseason form, and Wheaton Academy (2-2) never recovered against the Geneva onslaught.
For the game Wheaton Academy was limited to 11 field goals.
"Geneva is a good team, and we didn't play very well," said Wheaton Academy coach Beth Mitchell. "We didn't do a very good job in our half-court defense. We struggled offensively."
Alexa Sharkey and Jenn Lee led the Warriors with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
-- Kevin McGavin
Hampshire 69, Wheaton North 61, 2 OT:ŒSenior leadership is invaluable in close games, and with just one senior on its roster, Hampshire got just that at the 20th annual Geneva Thanksgiving Tournament.
Oh, and the younger players helped out the Whip-Purs a little, too.
Senior Mallory Koster buried a 12-footer to beat the regulation buzzer and tie the game, then the Whips went on to beat Wheaton North 69-61 in double overtime.
"It didn't go the way we wanted it to," said Falcons coach David Eaton. "We had some foul trouble and had some starters on the bench. We needed some people to step up off the bench and we didn't have that experience.
"(Hampshire) has some nice players. They hit some shots but we needed to do a better job defensively."
Hampshire (2-2) will take on Antioch in today's fifth place game at 2:30 p.m. Wheaton North (1-2) closes tournament action against Elgin at 1 p.m.
Senior Michelle Scandora led the Falcons with 18 points while Allie Cerone added 13 and Madison Goudy 11.
-- John Radtke
Benet 52, Bartlett 37:ŒSophomore Nikki Bell scored 16 points for the Redwings in the Tip-Off Tournament at Benet. Bartlett remained winless with the loss.
Naperville Central 53, Joliet 45:ŒEmma Ondik scored 16 points and Kelley Hendrick and Jessica Carter each added 10 for the Redhawks (4-0) at the Tip-Off Tournament at Benet.
Waubonsie Valley 51, Minooka 25:ŒAt the WarHawk Tournament 10 Waubonsie Valley players scored led by Lauren Brownridge's 8 points. The Warriors play West Aurora at 1 p.m. today.
Huntley 51, Naperville North 40:ŒSenior Lauren Quinn led the Huskies with 15 points at the WarHawk Tournament.
Glenbard South 35, Glenbard North 29:ŒDanielle Pipal led the Raiders (5-1) with 10 points as they remained undefeated in the Rachel Bach Tournament at Glenbard East. The Raiders play the Rams at 3 p.m. today for the tourney championship.
Glenbard East 40, Glenbard West 39:ŒThe host Rams kept their Rachel Bach Tournament title hopes alive with the narrow win. Freshman Kelsey Taylor scored a game-high 15 points for the Rams. Kathryn Lux and Abbey White each had 11 points for the Hilltoppers.
Downers Grove North 55, Addison Trail 33:ŒNiki Sebo had 12 points to lead the Trojans to the win at the Rachel Bach Tournament at Glenbard East. Addison Trail freshman Jasmine Little led all scorers with 13 points.
Driscoll 61, Maine East 42:ŒThe Highlanders (5-0) claimed the Willowbrook tournament championship with the victory. Taylor Reaber led the way with 15 points and 9 rebounds. Allie Divito scored 13 points and Gigi DiGrazia had 10. Courtney Lindfors had 6 points and 12 rebounds, and Bridget Delboccio had 9 points and as many rebounds.
Hinsdale Central 47, Neuqua Valley 32:ŒRaquel Davis led the Wildcats with 9 points at Hinsdale South's tournament.