Aurora Central Catholic opens with win

While most high school basketball teams began their seasons during Thanksgiving week, Aurora Central Catholic spent the time practicing.

Judging from Wednesday night's 79-44 victory over Harvest Christian in the 5th annual Burney Wilkie Classic at Aurora Christian, the time was well spent.

Aurora Central Catholic (1-0) knocked down five 3-pointers while opening a 27-5 first-quarter lead and never looked back, capturing its season debut over the undermanned Lions (1-5).

Junior guard Brett Czerak scored 11 of his team-high 15 points in the first 6 minutes, connecting on his first three 3-point attempts, as the Chargers jumped out to leads of 14-0 and 24-3.

"It felt good to get out there and finally do it to someone else for a change," Czerak said of his team's intense practices. "We did a good job of pushing the tempo."

The Chargers led 50-17 at halftime and 68-28 after 3 quarters against a Harvest Christian team that had just 6 players in uniform.

"You just try to work on what you can work on," said Chargers coach Nathan Drye. "It's better than having another scrimmage. We've been scrimmaging against ourselves for the last 3 ½ weeks so playing anybody is fine."

Nick Faltz and Dylan Baker finished with 12 and 10 points, respectively, while Zach Smith had 8 points, and Tamarius Davis and Jake Bush added 7 points apiece.

Davis, a freshman, also had 5 steals and 3 assists in a reserve role, sharing point guard duties with junior starter Donavan Reid (4 points, 3 steals).

"I thought they both did a pretty good job out there," said Drye. "Donavan did a nice job at the start and Tamarius came in and did a great job as well. He had quite a few steals and pushed the pace."

Despite the 45-point victory, Drye knows his team has to improve in several areas heading into Thursday night's game against St. Edward.

"We've got to rebound the ball better," said Drye, whose team lost the battle of the boards, 45-31. "We've got to be quicker and have our rotation down. We need to be on people when they catch the ball."

Sophomore Zach Floyd paced the Lions with 17 points, including three 3-pointers, while sophomore Mark Davila came off the bench to add 14 points.

Freshman Jack Nohava and sophomore Dylan Lockwood contributed 13 and 12 rebounds, respectively, for Harvest Christian.

"We have a young group of guys that is hungry and getting better," said Lions coach Lafayette Bell. "We were playing up (against a Class 3A team) which I think is great for my guys.

"You have to take the first step before you finish and we're in the first-step process."