Naperville Central seniors get the job done

Senior night tradition dictates that a basketball coach honor his fourth-year players by giving them a start, no matter the amount of playing time they get in other games. That gave Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer a conundrum to ponder on Friday night, since he coaches a team that features 10 seniors.

While all of them obviously couldn't start, they all played in the first quarter, and all made solid contributions-including the nine of them who scored-in a 74-56 DuPage Valley Conference defeat of Wheaton North.

"Our seniors all played well," said Kramer. "They were ready to go tonight and wanted to get away from last week's performance (a loss to Naperville North). When we play together as a team and move the ball, we're a good team; when we're selfish we struggle. We have so many kids with equal ability so it's hard to play all of them and get in a flow. Tonight we played a lot of them and it clicked."

Leading the Charge of the Senior Brigade for Central (14-10, 6-6) was Bobby Czarnowski, who had a game-high 16 points, including a pivotal 9 in the third quarter when the Redhawks sprinted from a 27-27 tie to lead 50-40 with one quarter to play.

"It was very exciting to play with all of the guys we've played with for four years," said Czarnowski. "It was real exciting to see all of them play well."

Seven of the seniors scored between 2 and 4 points in the first half as Central held a 27-23 lead at the break. North (8-16, 3-9) was fortunate to be even that close as the Falcons were outrebounded 22-4 in the half and made only 5 of 20 shots from the field, including going the final 10-plus minutes without a 2-point basket.

"In the first half we had trouble rebounding the ball, took poor shots and didn't finish possessions," said North coach Jim Nazos. "We were down four points and if we had rebounded the ball we might have been up three or four."

The Falcons did tie the game in the first 51 seconds of the third quarter on back-to-back baskets from Nick Barry, but with Central subsequently leading 33-27, a Falcon was called for a technical foul. Paul Wirtz made all 4 free throws for Central and when Mike Schremp completed the possession with a jumper, the Redhawks had a sudden 39-27 lead, a margin that would not go below double digits the rest of the night, despite some hot 3-point shooting from Jordan Wayhart, Jeff Schalk and Mike Small.

"I thought our guards played real well, and Mike Schremp, Paul Wirtz and Mark Bicek all took care of the ball," said Kramer. "Bobby (Czarnowski) also made some big shots, and Brent Zelinski hit a big 3 in the first half."

Lest Kramer worry that the cupboard will be bare when all those seniors depart, Schremp is only a junior and junior David Niggins came off the bench to score a career-high 12 points, including a pair of spectacular dunks.