St. Edward eases past Aurora Central
Junior point guard Kelvin Cortez-Harvey scored 21 points and helped engineer the offense to near perfection while leading St. Edward's boys basketball team to a 73-58 victory over Aurora Central Catholic in Thursday night's Burney Wilkie Classic at Aurora Christian.
The Green Wave (4-2) went on an early 13-2 run to turn a 9-8 deficit into a 21-11 advantage and struck again with a 10-0 second-quarter surge while extending their lead to 34-21 with 2:07 remaining in the first half.
Cortez-Harvey keyed the surge with 5 points, including 3 free throws and a driving layup, while teammate Adam Radcliffe (11 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) added a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
Jake French capped the half with another layup, providing the Green Wave with a 36-24 lead and setting the tone for the remainder of the night.
"I thought we were kind of ready for their pressure and our guys inside came through," said St. Edward coach P.J. White. "It was nice passes and a layup or a 4-foot shot. Those are nice shots to take against a team like that. You should be making a lot of those."
Aurora Central Catholic (1-1), which connected on just 1 of its 12 three-point attempts in the opening half, was also outrebounded 25-14 through the first 16 minutes.
"We got off to a bad start and shot the ball poorly at the beginning of the game," said Chargers' coach Nathan Drye. "I think that made them much more comfortable."
Aurora Central Catholic crept to within 9 at 44-35 on a baseline jumper by junior guard Brett Czerak with 4:12 left in the third quarter but the Green Wave scored 9 of the final 11 points of the period, capped by Cortez-Harvey's steal and layup to make it 53-37.
"We were moving the ball a lot better," said Cortez-Harvey. "We were doing that in practice - working on getting better shots. And our defense was a lot better."
Andrew O'Neill finished with 18 points and 6 rebounds for the Green Wave, while Sean Phelan added 8 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists.
St. Edward shot 57 percent from the field for the game (28 of 49) and owned a 42-29 advantage on the glass.
"I think a lot of that has to do with a lot of their shots were coming from the outside so rebounds were coming off and we were able to take care of that," said White. "It was good to see us play well."
Brett Czerak paced the Chargers with 26 points, including four 3-pointers, but they made just 18 percent (5 of 28) of their 3-point attempts.
"We were awful defensively," said Drye. "We didn't take anything away and our defensive rotations were terrible. We didn't stay in front of anybody."