Glenbard East rolls over Naperville C.

To Naperville Central it seemed like Glenbard East made every shot it took.

Close, but not quite.

The Rams made 55 percent of their shots, 57 percent of their 3-pointers and 89 percent of their free throws to remain undefeated in the DuPage Valley Conference with an 84-66 victory Friday night in Lombard.

“We just couldn’t stop them,” Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer said. “We scored enough points to win, but we gave up too many points.”

Rams junior Dante Bailey went first, scoring the Rams’ first 8 points. He finished with 13. Then Illinois State-bound senior Johnny Hill warmed up, eventually finishing with 22.

“I just wanted to get out to a good start, help the team out,” Bailey said. “Johnny was struggling a little bit.”

Glenbard East (17-3, 9-0) led 38-31 at halftime.

In the second half it was Northern Illinois-bound guard Zach Miller’s turn to tickle the nets. He scored 18 of his 21 points after halftime, hitting 4 of the Rams’ 12 3-pointers.

“They add up, right?” Rams coach Scott Miller said of the 3-pointers with a big smile. “When Zach hits the 3s, it just opens the whole floor up for us, the back cuts and things like that. That definitely helps.”

“He just turned it up and that’s what we needed,” Bailey said of Zach Miller, who got 6 of his 8 assists in the first half. “He turned it up, I turned it up and Johnny turned it up.”

Naperville Central (9-12, 2-7) countered with senior David Niggins and freshman Nick Czarnowski inside, then brought junior Bryce Kirk off the bench to hit five 3-pointers, finishing with 15 points. Niggins scored a game-high 24 points, with Czarnowski adding 17.

“I thought we did a real good job offensively, did some good things,” Kramer said. “Bryce Kirk came off the bench and knocked down some big shots. I thought our freshman did some good things. David’s going to score for us. He always does.”

“Offensively, we played very well,” Scott Miller said. “I thought defensively we could have rebounded a little better, but you’ve got to give them some credit too. Niggins is a good player, and Czarnowski played a nice game, made some shots.”

But it wasn’t enough. The Rams’ top-scoring trio had too much help. Kendall Bridges added 8 points, Tyree York contributed 7 and Kevin Priebe 6.

“It’s tough to beat a team that shoots like that,” Kramer said. “We ran into a buzzsaw tonight. They’re a very good team.”