Naperville Central struggles for win
The temptation is to say that on Mom's Night, when the Naperville Central basketball players presented red roses to the mothers before tipoff, that they then went out and turned in a performance only a mother could love.
Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer wouldn't necessarily disagree.
"That wasn't pretty, but we'll take it," he said after the Redhawks posted a scrappy 46-36 DuPage Valley Conference defeat of visiting West Chicago.
Actually, Maalox moments didn't seem to be on tap as Central (11-5, 4-2) strolled to an 18-3 lead two minutes into the second quarter while holding the Wildcats (2-14, 0-6) scoreless for more than 10 minutes at one point. That stretch highlighted the Redhawks' depth as Matt Neufeld was confined to the bench with 2 fouls, while David Niggins and Bobby Czarnowski were uncharacteristically off their games.
Into the breach stepped Cam Brate, who had 3 blocks and 4 offensive rebounds in the half in place of Neufeld, and Mark Bicek, who rolled in a tricky scoop layup and drained a 3-pointer that gave the Redhawks a 25-7 lead before they settled for a 25-11 edge at halftime.
Ryan Karg was the only Wildcat to make an offensive impression over the first two quarters as he had 7 points and scored his team's only 3 baskets while the rest of the squad went 0 of 10 from the field. But it was a different West Chicago squad that took the court in the third quarter as Charles Jacques shook free for 7 points and Al Robbins, Chad Driscoll and Justin Mundt started wreaking some defensive havoc in helping the Wildcats close within 30-24 after three periods.
"The boys decided to stop making excuses and decided they wanted to play the way we should play all the time," said West Chicago coach Kevin Baldus. "We're not going to settle for losing, but it shows we can play, and we have to play like that for four quarters, not just one or one and a half."
On the other hand after the break, Kramer had a hard time recognizing his team.
"After having guys on the bench with foul trouble, we came out flat in the third quarter and couldn't get a flow going," he said. "We weren't focused, but give them credit, the first half was all us and in the second half they really came back at us."
The Redhawks began milking the clock with four minutes remaining and a 36-28 lead, and Kramer pointed to the job Mike Schremp, Paul Wirtz and Nick Linne did in playing keep-away from the Wildcats, which eventually led to the free throws that Neufeld, Schremp and Czarnowski made down the stretch to ice the game as the Wildcats could get no closer than 8 points in the final three minutes.