Naperville Central 57, Glenbard East 50

If winning at home is the meat of a conference championship, road wins are the gravy.

Naperville Central's boys basketball team scooped up a whole boat full Friday night at Glenbard East, scoring a key DuPage Valley Conference road win with a 57-50 victory in Lombard.

After subduing one of the conference's toughest gymnasiums, Naperville Central (6-1, 2-0) felt pretty good about its early-season performance in the DVC and its hopes of defending the league title.

"It was definitely a big win," said Redhawks guard Danny Ondik. "We just had to stay calm under pressure, and came out on top. All the road games are tougher, and that makes it that much bigger of a win for us."

Glenbard East (4-2, 1-1) led only once at 5-4, but the Rams had an opportunity to seize a lead late in the first half following Jack Merrithey's 3-pointer that narrowed the gap to 19-18.

The Redhawks' Drew Crawford, however, answered with his only points of the first half - a 3-pointer that carried over into a 13-0 run through the early minutes of the third quarter, extending the margin to 32-18.

"It started at the end of the half," said Rams coach Scott Miller, whose team made only 3 of 12 second-quarter field goals. "We had been doing a great job on Drew, and then we left him open at the end there. That kind of got them going."

Crawford scored 9 of his team-high 15 points in the third quarter as the Redhawks opened their biggest lead of 17 points. Crawford also pulled down 15 rebounds.

"We knew they were going to be our main competition in the DVC, so we got a little excited for the game," Crawford said. "We just came out and executed and kept our composure."

In another balanced effort for the Redhawks, four players reached double-figure scoring. David Mallett scored 12 points while Ondik, who hit three 3-pointers, and Matt Neufeld each pitched in 11 points.

Sophomore Jon Hill scored 15 points off the bench for Glenbard East. Paul Sanders added 14 points.

"The kids responded in the second half," said Redhawks coach Pete Kramer. "That's the way we've been all year. It's a special group that keeps fighting and loves to work together."