Redhawks run away from Devils

Naperville Central has the talent to make a team unravel. Tuesday the Redhawks made Hinsdale Central unravel right quick.

Naperville Central opened the nonconference game on a 14-2 run and was never challenged, beating its guest 72-43.

"Some nights you just click," said Redhawks coach Pete Kramer, "and it was clicking for us on both ends."

As pleased as the coach was on the offensive end - Drew Crawford scored 25 points, David Mallett 14 with four 3-pointers and center Matt Neufeld 13 points with 11 rebounds - he was really tickled with the defense.

"Defensively, I thought we were outstanding," Kramer said. "We only gave up 15 points in one half. That's very good. And it was team defense, it wasn't just one or two guys."

Naperville Central (17-2) forced the issue with a pair of Neufeld baskets in the lane, then after Hinsdale Central (9-7) scored on John Whitelaw's drive the Redhawks rattled off 10 straight points.

"We got off to a really slow start, so it was kind of hard to dig ourselves out of the hole," Whitelaw said. "Everything kind of snowballed."

It meant only an 8-2 lead, but perhaps what broke the Red Devils' back was a Crawford two-hand slam off his backdoor cut and Danny Ondik's crisp bounce pass. Ondik also had 4 steals for the game.

"I don't want to give too much away about it, but it's one of our go-to plays," Crawford said. "Yeah, that really kind of gave us some fire and started us off."

After a start that consisted of 4 turnovers and 1-for-5 shooting, Hinsdale Central coach Ed Lynch atypically drew two technical fouls and an ejection for what an official later called "unsporting behavior," with 2:42 left in the first quarter.

Assistant Brian Mitchell took over. He pointed to Crawford's dunk before Redhawks fans as a turning point.

"We were focusing on him all week in practice," said Mitchell, whose club was led by guard Nick Kladis' 8 points. "That was the play we really didn't want to have happen, and it happened."

Trailing 14-4 after a quarter, hung within 28-15 at halftime. A quick 12-2 Redhawks run featuring a pair of Mallett 3s again widened the margin.

Despite action by Red Devils Jason Rafferty and Clay Foster, Naperville Central led 42-26 entering the fourth quarter - then added 30 more points.

"We kind of went out and played tough man-to-man defense, put a lot of pressure on them, kept them from running their sets," Crawford said. "Then on offense we were real composed in working the ball around, and we executed well to get good shots. And we were knocking them down."

But not out, Mitchell stressed.

"We've got leaders on this team, we've got guys who've been through a lot of different situations and we tried our best," he said. "At the end of the game, that's all we can ask for, is that we left it on the floor."