Bolingbrook blows past Naperville Central

For the first 10 minutes and 30 seconds it was a hotly contested girls basketball game, and then all of a sudden it wasn't.

Naperville Central played highly ranked host Bolingbrook tough in the early part of Thursday's Class 4A regional final, trailing by only 8 points in the second quarter. Then the Raiders blew the game open with 23 straight points and went on to a 76-35 victory and the regional championship.

"It was 24-16 in the second quarter, and then it was 47-16 at halftime," said Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum. "Bolingbrook is very fast and they play tremendous defense. We haven't had to play at that speed and we were rushing more than we should have."

"At first our defense was strong. They weren't making their initial shots and we were boxing out and getting the ball," said senior Kelley Hendrick, who scored a team-high 16 points in her final game for Naperville Central. "In the second quarter our intensity was off. They're a phenomenal team, obviously better than us. But we went out respectably and that's all you can ask."

The Redhawks (20-12) continued their scoring drought well into the third quarter when Katherine Tanck put back an offensive rebound that was the team's first score in more than eight minutes. At that point the score was 49-18 and the outcome was already decided.

The Raiders' freshman center Morgan Tuck scored half of her game-high 20 points in the third quarter. The Redhawks never stopped battling even when the game was well out of reach.

"We came down here to play 32 minutes," Nussbaum said. "When it became obvious we weren't going to win, we still said, 'We're going to play hard the whole way.' "

Bolingbrook's Ariel Massengale said the Raiders (20-4) weren't pressing well in the first quarter and that let the Redhawks "do what they wanted to do.

"Then everyone settled down and we played our game," Massengale said. "We picked it up defensively. We started trapping and moving and getting easy baskets. We ran the floor and made it our game."

Tuck also had 10 rebounds, while Satavia Taylor and Taylor Tuck each scored 11 points. For Naperville Central, which started the season at 8-9, everything came together after Jan. 13. The Redhawks went 12-3 the rest of the way, losing only to three of the top teams in the state - Marist, Lake Zurich and Bolingbrook - and finishing as co-champion of the DuPage Valley Conference.

"We have always said that our goals are to win 20 games, win conference and win a regional," Nussbaum said. "On January 13 it didn't look like we were going to make one goal let alone two. I'm really proud of this team for the way they came out the last 15 games."

"This was a very emotional game for me because my senior season is over," Hendrick said. "We came together as a team this year and I wouldn't trade it for anything."