Levine, York get 'massive' road win at Hinsdale Central in conference opener

With six of its nine conference losses by single digits, a young York team struggled to get over the hump in the rugged West Suburban Silver last season.

So Friday's 50-43 road victory over defending league champ Hinsdale Central in the WSS opener certainly meant a little more.

"This is massive to us," said senior guard and Penn commit A.J. Levine, who led all scorers with 21 points to go along with five rebounds and three steals. "I don't think we've ever won here in our whole careers. We came in tonight and we were like, we are going to do whatever we can to win. We knew there would be ups and down but we stuck together and got some momentum going into (the rest of) conference play.

"We have a touch schedule so getting going early is our biggest thing."

The key for the Dukes (3-2), which started an all-senior starting lineup, was on the defensive end. With the score tied at 41-apiece heading into the final eight minutes, York held the Red Devils to a single field goal in the fourth quarter.

"We knew (Daniel) Orozco was their guy," said Levine, who hit three 3-pointers and scored 17 points in the first half. "He got going early too. We made adjustments at half, tried to take him out of the equation, went to a box-and-one. We make offense out of our defense."

Kyle Waltz handled the scoring load down the stretch, scoring seven of his 12 points in the final period, including a three-point play which gave York the lead for good. He added eight rebounds.

"I think our last four practices (this week) were the best practices of my four years," Waltz said. "We were all focused on winning this game. We know we can be really good. We found that out in the summer, we had a really good summer.

"We just have to keep playing hard and be physical."

Brendan Molis added nine points and Braden Richardson contributed six points and seven rebounds for the Dukes, who went 2-2 at the Palatine Thanksgiving tournament.

"We have the utmost respect for Hinsdale Central," York coach Mike Dunn said, "and for coach (Nick) Latorre and his program and what they've done the last couple of years. So this means a lot to us; it's been a couple years since we've beaten them.

"We have eight seniors returning so just the maturity from last year to this year. I think our experience showed tonight. In the third quarter, there were a couple times we could have folded but we rebounded very well. I'm really proud of our kids, they did a fantastic job."

Orozco scored 14 of his team-high 20 points in the first half as Hinsdale Central (1-4) faced a four-point deficit at half. The senior then knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter and after a Luke Bilenko basket, the home team led 38-37.

But the Red Devils, who return no starters and virtually no varsity experience from last season's 31-4 team, couldn't get anything to fall the rest of the way, including missing five free throws in the final 40 seconds. Eric Kozys had seven points and Bilenko finished with six. Vincas Buzelis totaled five points and seven rebounds.

"York is very good," said Latorre, whose team went 1-3 at the Oswego/Naperville North Invite. "I thought they came here and did a good job setting the tone. They got off to a good start offensively. "We are just looking to improve as the season goes on and I think we will. We've been in every single game. Every team we've lost to has been in or around the top-20."