Naperville Central remains red hot in regional

Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum believes that Tuesday's regional playoff challenge by Plainfield North was just the kind of game his Redhawks would have lost during the first half of the season.

Those Redhawks (20-11) went 8-9, but the current team continued to ride its brilliant second half and gutted out a 60-54 win over the pesky Tigers in the semifinals of the Class 4A Bolingbrook regional.

Naperville Central's reward for the victory is to face the highly rated host Raiders in the final Thursday.

"We were tough down the stretch and that made the difference," Nussbaum said. "That's the way we've played in the past 14 games."

Kelley Hendrick led the Redhawks with 25 points including 8 of 10 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter to ice the game.

Plainfield North (17-9) had its last lead over the Redhawks, 50-49, with less than three minutes to go.

But a pair of layups by Catherine Tanck after receiving nice bounce passes from Hendrick and Emma Ondik, put Naperville Central in the lead for good.

The Tigers continued to battle and the result was still in doubt in the closing 90 seconds, but a steal by Ondik led to a Maggie Buoy basket and Hendrick hit 6 free throws to put the game away.

"This shows that we can't go into any game underestimating our opponent," said Hendrick, who had 6 steals in the game. "We didn't play with as much intensity as we should have until the end. We didn't do the simple things like rotate on defense and box out on rebounds. But in the second half our defensive pressure was better and it was especially good at the end."

Buoy had 12 points off the bench and Tanck added 11 points and 9 rebounds.

"The offensive contribution by Maggie and Catherine was outstanding," Nussbaum said. "It was definitely a team victory. This was a career game for Maggie. When Maggie comes in our energy level just lifts. It's been that way throughout the season."

Takeya Green was Plainfield North's big gun with 21 points, including four 3-pointers.

"The light bulb went on for Takeya tonight," said Plainfield North coach Jim Walter. "We've been trying to get her to go inside out and she did a great job of that."

Walter was disappointed with the loss but pleased with the showing turned in by his third-year varsity program.

"This was as close to a complete game as we've played," Walter said. "Naperville Central is one of the hottest teams in our area, and their experience showed at the end. They were very poised under pressure."

In Tuesday's first game, Bolingbrook defeated Naperville North 81-34, with Morgan Tuck leading the way with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Ariel Massengale also had a double-double with 11 points and 10 assists.

Kaelyn Witkowski led the Huskies with 9 points.