Crawford exits with cape intact

As Drew Crawford slowly walked to the Naperville Central bench for the last time, it almost felt like watching Superman enter the phone booth to change into Clark Kent for good.

You weren't ready to say goodbye.

A charging call with 42.5 seconds left in Friday's 62-55 Neuqua Valley win at the Class 4A Oswego East sectional final fouled out Crawford, ending his illustrious Naperville Central playing days.

But what a final act.

Crawford scored 30 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, nearly carrying the Redhawks past No. 1 seed Neuqua. He really had it going in the first half, scoring 19 points on a series of spinning drives and 3-pointers to take his team into halftime up 33-26.

"It looked good for us in the first half," Crawford said, "but we knew they were going to make a run."

Neuqua junior Dwayne Evans, an AAU teammate of Crawford's on the Illinois Warriors, relished the matchup on the big stage.

"First half, Drew was amazing. We couldn't stop him," said Evans, who also had 30 points. "He's a great player. It was a thrill to play against him."

Better Neuqua help defense held Crawford to 2 field goals in the second half, the last a baseline jumper with 2:23 left that gave Naperville Central its final lead at 55-54. Rarely substituted for, leaned on heavily to handle the ball against Neuqua's withering pressure and rebound on the back side of the defense, Crawford left all his energy on the floor.

"We tried to take him out," Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer said, "but all of a sudden you take him out and they score two quick baskets because he's such a presence at both ends of the floor. We have a superstar surrounded by a bunch of role players. As you see Drew can't do it all by himself."

The curtain had to draw eventually, but it was quite an encore of a senior year as he heads off to Northwestern. The Redhawks went 27-3 and won the DuPage Valley Conference championship outright for the first time since 1994 before advancing to the sectional finals.

"The team this year, I'm never going to forget these guys," Crawford said. "It's been one of my best seasons of basketball."

Crawford has Neuqua coach Todd Sutton's vote for Mr. Basketball. He has the love and respect of his own coach - and that goes beyond his talent.

"He's such a special kid. I was lucky to coach him for three years," Kramer said. "What a coachable, classy kid - he never questioned a thing we did. As a coach, those players only come around once in a great while."