Pauga, Naperville Central dunk Glenbard North
After a slow start Naperville Central needed a spark, and sophomore Austin Pauga was ready to provide it with style.
Trailing Glenbard North 11-4 midway through the first quarter Friday night, the Redhawks’ Pauga came away with a steal, threw down his first varsity dunk and was fouled by the Panthers’ 6-foot-8 senior Ryan Krueger. He hit the foul shot to complete the three-point play and also began an 18-1 Redhawks run that paved the way for a 64-55 DuPage Valley Conference win.
Naperville Central (14-9, 5-6) outscored the Panthers 17-4 in the second quarter to take a 29-16 lead at the half thanks to big performances off the bench from Mike Blaszceyk and Nick Lopez, but it was Pauga’s dunk and game-high 19 points that played the biggest role in holding off a Panthers squad looking to complete a sweep of the hosts and to stay near the top of the league standings.
“I thought that changed everything,” Redhawks coach Pete Kramer said of the play. “That brought us some momentum and some confidence and that was exciting.”
Pauga said the time was right for a dunk as he was worried that Krueger might use his long arms to swat away a different shot.
“I was a little nervous about it,” he said of his big slam. “I thought if I went with a layup that Krueger might block it.”
The play fired up the home team and its fans, but Naperville Central had plenty of other things go its way on this night. Lopez scored all 10 of his points in the big second quarter, including a pair of 3s, while Blaszceyk dropped in a trio of 3s and went 5 of 6 from the line for 15 points.
“Our bench played really well tonight, and I thought the biggest part of the game was just us taking care of the basketball,” said Kramer, whose squad has won twice this week after suffering a three-game losing streak the previous week. “Our energy level was outstanding. It kind of fed off the Tuesday night win over Hinsdale Central.”
For the Panthers the nice start was ancient history by the time the Redhawks turned things around with that 18-1 run and after the visitors had 11 turnovers in the second quarter. Leading scorer Josh Fleming had 18 points but had to work hard for most of them and went 7 of 20 from the floor on the night.
“We turned the ball over way too many times in the first half, and we just didn’t play defense the way we normally play defense,” said Glenbard North coach Joe Larson, whose squad dropped to 8-3 in the DVC and 11-9 overall. “They played better than we did. They outplayed us in every facet of the game.”