ACC on fire, claims title at Sandwich

Midway through the second quarter of what turned out to be the championship game of the Sandwich Thanksgiving tournament, Bogan coach Kevin Brown implored his players to keep an eye on Nick Czaja.

From the bench Brown told them, "He's the biggest guy on the court."

That may or may not have been the case purely in terms of stature. But as far as having an impact and helping Aurora Central improve to 5-0 with a 74-56 win, the Chargers' junior forward was as big as anyone.

But winning this battle of undefeateds required a complete team effort, and that's what the Chargers got.

Mike Adams and Anthony Kelley teamed up with Czaja to clog up the middle, while Mark Adams and Steve Hollon made life miserable for the Bengals (4-1) everywhere else on the court.

"It's really easy when I've got Mark and Mike on the wings," Czaja said. "We decided to take away the high post."

Bogan brought quickness, size, as well a swagger to the floor, and just about everything else except a shooting touch and any sort of plan for stopping Aurora Central's potent offense.

"We knew they were going to pressure us and we wanted to attack it," Aurora Central coach Nathan Drye said. "We worked the ball, and did a tremendous job."

Aurora Central took control early, tearing off a 12-0 run that ate up most of the opening quarter.

"We wanted to jump out to a lead because we didn't want to have to chase them," Drye said.

The Chargers were up 16-5 after one quarter, and Kelley extended that margin by draining a three-pointer in the opening minute of the second quarter. When Mark Adams closed out the half by hitting a turnaround jumper, the Chargers were up 39-23, thanks in large part to their defense.

"We don't give up many uncontested shots," Drye said. "If you get it inside we've got Nick in the middle and both the Adams boys crashing on the wings."

With 5 blocks, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals, Mike Adams changed the way Bogan ran its offense, forcing the Bengals to settle for outside shots that were not falling.

"We set the tempo of the game," Mike Adams said. "We can shut teams down with our zone and that's what we did tonight."

As frustration set in on the Bogan side of the court, the game began to get physical, and even a little ugly. But if that's how it was going to be played, well, it was just fine with the Chargers.

"We're not going to be intimidated by anybody," Drye said. "If anything, we took it right at them."

When Hollon nailed his second 3-pointer, with 3:15 left in the third quarter, it gave the Chargers what was their biggest lead of the game at that time, 50-29.

Czala led the Chargers with 21 points. Mark Adams scored 15, and pulled down 8 boards, Kelley scored 11, and Brian O'Donnell also added 11 points.

This game wasn't specifically scheduled to be the championship, as all of the teams in the tournament play each other, it just worked out that way.

"This was our best game thus far," Drye said. "I thought it would be closer today, but our kids didn't want it to be a game and really took it to them."