Boys basketball: Berndt scores 1,000th point as Cary-Grove clinches share of FVC title
AJ Berndt could sense Adam Bauer charging behind him as Cary-Grove sought to close out a win over Crystal Lake Central in style.
The two seniors have been working on their alley-oop connection in practice. With the Trojans comfortably ahead midway through the fourth quarter, Berndt floated a pass toward the hoop and the 6-foot-7 forward Bauer slammed it home, drawing a massive rush of excitement from both Berndt and the Trojans’ student section.
“When I’m coming down, I have him in the back of my mind,” said Berndt, who poured in a career-high 36 points as C-G beat Central 75-57. “I heard a couple of the guys yelling on the side and I was like, at this point, I might as well throw it up there. He was able to catch it and put it down. Adam and I have been trying to get a lob like that in transition. It was one of my favorite plays.”
The alley-oop dunk capped off a monumental evening for both the Trojans and Berndt, who eclipsed 1,000 points for his career in the third quarter of Friday’s win. The senior guard put home a game-high 14 field goals and caught fire in the first quarter, where he scored 17 points and converted two old-fashioned three-point plays.
“It’s always been a goal of mine,” Berndt said when asked about achieving 1,000 career points. “Coming in tonight, it wasn’t my focus. I just wanted to get a win, but eclipsing that milestone was really cool. I thought we had a great week of practice and we were able to get out in transition. I made a couple of layups and we just took off from there. Ball movement has been our No. 1 thing.”
Berndt added three rebounds and three assists for the Trojans (25-4, 15-1 FVC), who can claim the FVC title outright with a victory at McHenry on Tuesday. It’s the first FVC title in six seasons for the Trojans, whose chemistry stems from having two pairs of brothers. C-G rosters a trio of Bauer brothers (Adam, Brady and Evan) and a pair of Berndt brothers (AJ and Jackson).
“We have a heavy senior load and I’ve been playing with these guys since I was little,” said Adam Bauer, who recorded 14 points, six rebounds and two assists. “Our communication on the court … we’re flying around knowing we have someone who’s going to help us out on defense. They ran a lot of man-to-man tonight and that’s kind of our speciality. We just kind of tore them apart.”
Central (18-11, 6-10 FVC) matched C-G’s offensive firepower in the first quarter, where Bud Shanahan drained three of his five triples in the game. The Tigers, who made nine 3-pointers against McHenry on Tuesday, drilled 11 of them on Friday night. Five Central players converted at least one 3-pointer.
“I always have good confidence in shooting the ball,” Shanahan said. “Every time I shoot, I think it’s going in. We’re taking some better shots and we’re swinging the ball a little better.”
With Adam Bauer in foul trouble and Central nailing 3-point shots early on, C-G clung to a 19-18 lead after one quarter. But Berndt was too much for the Tigers to handle. The senior guard finished a transition layup off a steal to spark a 9-0 run to start the second quarter. Behind Berndt, the Trojans led 59-42 after three quarters.
“We do have a good shooting team,” Tigers coach Brian Seaver said. “We’ve been shooting the ball lately as well, but we’ve got to play defense and we didn’t play defense tonight. We need to guard the ball better. We had guys going downhill to the lane and we weren’t helping very well. We need to do a better job of guarding the ball, but they had a very skilled player who had a great night.”
Dylan Dumele totaled 10 points and two rebounds, while Brady Bauer added five points and three rebounds to aid C-G in the win. Johnny Geisser and Danny Spychala each finished with 10 points for the Tigers, who will host Crystal Lake South on Tuesday. Sonny Shanahan had eight points off the bench for the Tigers.