ACC clinches 2nd straight SCC title
From the Suburban Catholic basement to the Suburban Catholic penthouse, Anthony Kelley has seen it all in his four years at Aurora Central.
And the senior sharpshooter, who also can jump out of the gym, must have decided he likes the view from the top much better. So much that he worked even harder to make sure his team stayed there.
Aurora Central's 71-58 victory over Marian Central Saturday night in Aurora, coupled with St. Francis' loss to Marmion earlier in the day, wraps up the Chargers' second straight SCC championship even though they still have three conference games remaining.
That's a far cry from last year, when Aurora Central (19-2, 11-0) won its first ever conference title in a dogfight of a race that ended in with a co-championship shared with Driscoll.
It's an even further cry from Kelley's freshman season, when coach Nate Drye brought him and Mike Adams up to the varsity, and they suffered through their share of growing pains in a 2-12 SCC season.
My how the Chargers have grown.
"I've put a lot of work into it through four years," Kelley said. "We worked unbelievably hard to get where we are today. When we were freshmen we talked about coming in and having a year like this. After all the hard work it is kind of turning out like I thought it could."
Kelley scored 31 points, hitting 13 of 17 shots from the field including another thunderous dunk when he stole a pass in the third quarter and finished at the other end.
"Anthony and Mike have been doing this for four years and they've worked so hard and both have gotten so much better," Drye said. "Several other 3-year kids have put in a lot of time, a lot of hard work and it is really paying off. I'm so proud of them."
Aurora Central put the game away early, leading 23-11 after one quarter and 39-22 at halftime. Marian hit just 4 of 26 shots from the field in the first half while ACC made 15 of 26.
"When the kids found out (that St. Francis lost) they said let's go out there and take it right away," Drye said. "They never let Marian get in the game, they wanted to crush them. We talked about burying them after one quarter, just winning the title after one quarter."
Nick Czaja scored 15 points and blocked 3 shots. Adams did a little of everything with 10 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks.
Marian Central fell to 10-12, 4-6.
"We couldn't make a bucket and they made everything," Marian coach Curtis Price said. "When you do that it is going to be tough to come back. I thought the first half we were a little intimidated."
Imagine that four years ago. The Chargers intimidating teams... that's music to Kelley's ears.
"It's definitely a different look from last year because we had to battle it out and it came down to a co-conference champs. This year we were a lot more determined because we knew we could get that goal done," Kelley said.
"Back-to-back conferences is huge but we still want to focus on the goal of wanting to go undefeated in conference. It's nice but it's still not over."