West Aurora surges past Naperville Central

As West Aurora coach Gordon Kerkman might say, the Blackhawks needed an igniter.

Leading scorer Juwan Starks missed his 5 first-quarter shots Friday against Naperville Central. Into the void stepped senior Tommy Goulding.

Known to teammates as "Tommy Gun," Goulding lived up to his nickname. His 3 first-quarter 3-point baskets and a layup off a Kenny Battle Jr. steal helped West Aurora surge past the Redhawks in DuPage Valley Conference play, 64-42 in Aurora.

"My two best games this year were against them. I had 11 this game and 9 last game," Goulding said.

"I usually don't even play that much. I finally just had a chance to play and I just took advantage of it, I guess."

Goulding's marksmanship gave West Aurora the lead to stay, but 11 points in a quarter do not a victory make.

West Aurora (10-6, 6-2) hunkered down defensively. Brandon Hayes and Starks limited Naperville Central's top scorer, David Niggins, to 7 points, about 11 under his average.

West Aurora didn't force the Redhawks into a ton of turnovers, but when asked if his team played quicker than the opponent, Kerkman said, "Yeah, probably, because we outrebounded them pretty good.

"I think it was 28-14 in rebounds," he said. "We a lot of times aren't quick, particularly to loose balls. But I thought the kids showed pretty good intensity. We got pretty good ball movement."

Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer conceded West Aurora's edge in quickness. What he couldn't stomach was seeing his team be "outworked."

"At every position I think they're quicker than we are. But there's ways to overcome that a little bit, and a lot of it comes from in here," Kramer said, pointing to his chest.

West Aurora enjoyed balanced scoring to take a 31-16 lead at halftime and 47-26 after three quarters. Starks returned to form for 13 points and Kyle Pilmer hit his arching half-hooks for 12 points. Battle Jr. "a magician on the baseline," Hayes called him scored a game-high 16 points.

Naperville Central (9-11, 2-6) saved its best for last, which took a little of the bloom off the rose for Kerkman. Still, a 49-35 deficit with 4:18 left to play was as good as it got for the Redhawks. Mike Schremp led them with 9 points. Kevin Linne added 8 and Niggins, Alex Renn and Hayden Daniels all scored 7.

"We had to take care of the ball and rebound," Schremp said. "We didn't do either of those things, though, so we lost."