East Aurora shoots down Naperville Central

Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer had recently scouted East Aurora a couple times, but that did not prepare him at all for what he witnessed Wednesday night.

The Redhawks coach knew Tomcats guard Ryan Boatright was pretty quick and pretty good. But he didn't expect him to get loose for 40 points and 8 assists while leading No. 7 East Aurora to an 83-72 Class 4A regional semifinal victory at Plainfield East.

"I knew he was good, but I didn't know he was that good," Kramer said after his team unsuccessfully threw a variety of defenses at Boatright and his teammates, who bombed in 14 of 25 3-pointers in the game.

And it wasn't just Boatright, who sank six 3s while scoring 20 points in each half. Guard Snoop Visor dropped in 4 of his 6 long-range shots in the first quarter as the Tomcats (18-9) took a 22-16 lead.

"Oh man," said Redhawks junior David Niggins, who on most nights would have been the biggest star, what with seven 3-pointers and a personal-high 28 points. "It seemed like if Boatright wasn't making shots then Snoop was making shots and if it wasn't Boatright or Snoop, then someone else was making shots. We threw multiple defenses at them but it seemed like everything we did they adjusted to."

Tomcats coach Wendell Jeffries joked that maybe his team was warming up all season in order to start knocking down its shots with consistency once the postseason came around.

"It's about time," he said of his team's 3-point success. "We worked all year on it."

But make no mistake, East Aurora didn't just fire away from long range. Tramell Weathersby did have a 3-pointer, but most of his 17 points came inside, and when Boatright wasn't hitting from outside, he was either darting to the basket for quick layups or rifling passes to a teammate down low for an easy bucket.

"The lanes were open so I kept taking them," Boatright said. "We played great tonight, but we'll have to play better to beat Neuqua (on Friday night in the regional final)."

Even after allowing 10 3-pointers in the first half and trailing 47-33 at the break, the Redhawks (16-11) battled and closed to within 51-44 midway through the fourth quarter following a steal and a basket by Bobby Czarnowski and a putback by Niggins.

But Boatright scored 7 straight points for East Aurora and the Tomcats once again led by 14 after three quarters and were on their way to the regional finals.

"They were just in such a flow," said Kramer, whose Redhawks will have to replace 10 seniors, including center Matt Neufeld, who closed out his fourth varsity postseason with 13 points and 5 rebounds. "They shot the heck out of the ball, but I'm proud of the way we played and battled."

Neufeld had 11 points in the first half, but East Aurora paid him extra attention in the second half when Naperville Central was forced to rely heavily on outside shots.

"We thought we matched up decently on paper," Neufeld said. "But it was very frustrating. We threw everything we had at them. No matter what we did they still made shots."