Czarnowski, Naperville C. make their point against Marmion
Without graduated scoring forward David Niggins around anymore, it will be Naperville Central sophomore center Nick Czarnowski that opposing defenses key on.
Out of the gate Monday at the Oswego Hoops For Healing Tournament, the 6-foot-6 Czarnowski and his teammates worked the inside-outside game effectively to the tune of a 63-53 win over Marmion.
"We have really good chemistry this year," said Czarnowski, who scored 22 points to go with 5 rebounds and 3 blocks. "We tried to pass the ball around a lot. We have a lot of guys that can score from outside on the perimeter so we use me as a pivot point. They throw it down to me, but they know I'm going to get it back out."
The Redhawks (1-0) jumped out to a 15-5 lead after one quarter and expanded the lead to 36-17 at the half thanks to some hot shooting off the bench.
Nick Lopez kicked in two 3s in the second quarter and Jabari Hartfield scored 7 of his 10 points in the period to balance out Central's offense.
"Jabari was very active, very explosive," Redhawks coach Pete Kramer said. "He's still learning, but at the same time this is the deepest we've been in a while. We're going to throw a lot of guys in that can do different things at different times."
Marmion (0-1) struggled in a 16-of-39 shooting night, but did figure out its offense a bit in the second half, mostly due to getting accustomed to new players following the graduation of four starters.
"We have to control the ball," said Cadets coach Ryan Paradise, who saw his team turn the ball over 21 times. "I think we'll be fine defensively. Czarnowski is a load and I think Ryan Glasgow did a great job on him, but we're looking for ball security."
The Cadets, behind 10 points from Pete Stefanski and 9 each from Colin Kavanaugh, Glasgow, and Alex Theisen, pulled the lead back to 12 several times in the third quarter and closer still at 9 with a minute left in the fourth, but the Redhawks hung on.
"When you have a team down, you'd like to see that second wave of guys, in an ideal world, keep that lead," Kramer said. "It was a good experience for us to see where we're at, and see what the kids can do in different situations. First game, we did some good things tonight."