Another decisive victory for ACC
Whether it's conference or nonconference opponents, the Aurora Central Catholic boys basketball team is beating them left and right.
Monday's nonconference game at Newark was the latest proof, as the Chargers topped the Norsemen 63-48.
The Chargers, however, did their damage in the second half after a slow first half, when they trailed 31-30.
"We came out with no intensity and allowed them to stay in the game," ACC coach Nate Drye said.
That didn't last long, as ACC star Mark Adams scored 8 of his 18 points in the third quarter, when the Chargers outscored Newark 14-8.
"He got us going," Drye said of Adams.
ACC held the Norsemen to just 15 points in the second half.
"Once we buckled down, we were OK," Drye said. "We were happy to get out of there with a win.
In addition to Adams, ACC was led by 6-foot-6 junior center Nick Czaja, who also finished with 18 points and a team-high 9 rebounds.
"Nick was real solid," Drye said. "He had a big height advantage, so we got the ball to him."
ACC improved to 18-1 overall, with its lone loss to Waubonsie Valley last month.
The Chargers' next challenge is Friday, when they take on St. Francis in Aurora for the security of first place in the Suburban Catholic Conference standings.
Girls basketball
Rosary 66, Marian Central 33: The Royals cruised to another Suburban Catholic Conference win with a victory over Marian Central in Woodstock on Monday.
Faith Jones led the way with a 19-point effort, followed by Jordan Rettig's 12 points.
Victoria Alvarez fell 3 points shy of her second triple-double of the year. The senior guard finished with 7 points, 11 steals and 12 assists.
The Royals, who held Marian to just 10 points in the second half, improved to 16-4 overall, 8-1 in the SCC.
St. Charles North 64, Wheaton North 46:ŒKiley Hackbarth scored a game-high 17 points, which led the North Stars to a nonconference win in Wheaton.
Nika Sircher added 13 points and Kelsey Smith finished with 7 points and a game-high 8 rebounds for the North Stars (14-4), who outscored the Falcons 22-9 in the third quarter.
Aurora Christian 52, Luther South 34: Lauren Heck scored 13 points and Chelsea Cooper added 12 in the Eagles' win in Aurora Monday.
The Eagles (9-9, 3-2) held Luther South to 4 points in the first quarter and led 32-13 at the half. Rachel Mertens also added 8 points.
Girls bowling
Kaneland 2833, Belvidere North 2812: Kelso Kuipers led the Knights with a 564, which helped her team top North Belvidere at AMF Lanes in North Aurora.
Robin Jakes bowled a 523 and Jessica Stebbins scored a 468 for the Knights in the nonconference meet.
Girls gymnastics
With only two weeks to 18 days before Waubonsie Valley, Neuqua Valley and Geneva compete in their respective regionals, the gymnasts have little time to perfect their routines, especially the peaks and higher-difficulty levels they have been working on to boost their personal and team scores.
During Monday's quadrangular meet at Neuqua Valley the gymnasts incorporated plenty of leaps, twists, turns and tumbling passes, but it was the Wildcats who made the biggest leap in performance, easily finishing ahead of the Warriors, Thunderbolts and Vikings with a score of 136.9.
Waubonsie Valley struggled with a 133.9, which disappointed coach Lacy Woulfe primarily because only one of her gymnasts was incorporating new skills.
"We didn't add anything to anyone else than Cassy (Waldman)," Woulfe said.
"We'll be working on cleaning up and sharpening things in practice. We don't have much practice time in January and that's the hard part, but we need to sharpen what we do have."
Geneva's Katherine Grubaugh worked in a pike tsuk on her vault to earn third place (8.9). Grubaugh was the only Vikings gymnast to work in a new skill on Monday night.
"She did pretty well," Geneva coach Kim Hostman said. "She stumbled on her second one, but hopefully she can get more height on it. She had been between 8.9 and 9.1 and I think she can do really well with it."
Geneva sophomore Cami Pfetzer didn't work any new skills but Hostman expects her to do so in Saturday's invite at Riverside-Brookfield.
"She has some things and on Saturday we hope we can get them in," she said. "You don't want to get into conference with anything that's totally new so we'll try to add them on Saturday and then go from there."
-- Chris Walker