Crawford's feeling better as Naperville C. wins

It'll take more than a flu bug to stop Drew Crawford.

Slow him down? Yes, the Naperville Central senior wasn't completely himself in Friday's cross-town boys basketball game against visiting Naperville North.

But Crawford - whatever percent he may have been playing at - remained the best player on the court.

Crawford's 21 points led the Redhawks to a 43-32 victory over the Huskies as Naperville Central grabbed sole possession of first place in the DuPage Valley Conference.

"I've had the flu all week, and I'm not feeling great," Crawford said. "Coach (Pete Kramer) gave me a lot of rest and did a great job with limiting my time. I'm pretty tired."

Crawford didn't plan on much rest late in the game, but he was forced to the bench after picking up his fourth foul with 1:32 left in the third quarter and the Redhawks (8-1, 3-0) holding a 33-23 lead after his fourth 3-pointer.

Baskets by Arnas Gintautas and Matt Hasse pulled the Huskies (4-4, 0-3) within 33-29, forcing Crawford back on the floor early in the fourth quarter.

Naperville North, however, scored only 3 points in the final 6:40 of the game. Overall the Huskies endured 9-of-40 shooting from the field and 12-of-24 free-throw shooting in notching their lowest-scoring output of the season.

"Tip your hat to them," said Huskies coach Mark Lindo. "We took pretty good care of the ball as far as getting the ball where we wanted to, but their defense maybe forced us to rush a little bit."

Naperville Central wasn't a whole lot better offensively, missing three straight 1-and-1 opportunities late in the game. Crawford, Nick Linne and Danny Ondik, though, hit 6 straight from the line to close it out.

The strong finish may have pushed the margin to double digits, but it wasn't easy getting there. A 9-0 run gave the Huskies an 18-15 second-quarter lead before Naperville Central rallied for a 22-18 halftime advantage.

Gintautas led the Huskies with 10 points and added 5 steals. The Redhawks' David Mallett scored 6 points on a pair of key second-half 3-pointers to back up Crawford's game-high effort.

"He practiced a little bit on Wednesday, but that was it," Redhawks coach Pete Kramer said of Crawford. "And he still had 21 points. Our defense has a lot to do with him, our offense has a lot to do with him. But other kids stepped up."