Naperville Central hits Geneva with 27-0 run
Take away one run by Naperville Central Tuesday night at the Hoops for Healing Tournament and Geneva could have left Oswego with a victory instead of a 53-31 loss.
A 22-point margin like that should tell you all you need to know about Naperville Central's run.
From the time Brendan Leahy hit a pair of free throws to give the Vikings their biggest lead of the night 16-11 with 5:24 left in the second quarter until Connor Chapman scored inside with 1:11 remaining in the third, Naperville Central (2-0) held Geneva (0-2) scoreless for 12 minutes, 13 seconds.
"I can honestly say I have never seen that before," Redhawks senior guard Kevin Linne said. "I kind of looked up in the third quarter and thought, 'They haven't scored a point in a while.' But we didn't really worry about that, we just stayed in the flow. We turned it up in the backcourt, we got that going and rotated quickly. Everyone contributed. We have a really good team chemistry."
Naperville Central's "51 junior press" caused all kinds of trouble for Geneva. The Vikings missed 10 shots from the field and turned the ball over 11 times during the drought.
"You can't win too many games on that kind of run," Geneva coach Phil Ralston said. "Just kind of lost our focus and weren't running our offense effectively. Too many turnovers and at the other end too many second shots and too many transition baskets. We struggled against a good team."
While Geneva couldn't buy a basket, the Redhawks scored 12 consecutive points to end the second quarter leading 23-16 at halftime, then the first 15 points of the second half for a 38-16 lead and 27-0 run.
Naperville Central hit four 3-pointers during the surge by four different players Nick Lopez, Mike Gruenthal, Mike Blaszceyk and Bryce Kirk.
With 6-foot-8 sophomore Nick Czarnowski demanding attention inside, the Redhawks are going to get plenty of good looks from the perimeter.
"When they double down he can kick it back out to us," Kirk said. "We have a lot of players who can shoot the 3."
Naperville Central also has a talented bench coach Pete Kramer can turn to. Kramer went 13 deep Tuesday.
The Redhawks bench scored nearly as many as the starters with 25 points led by 10 from Gruenthal.
"It's great having depth this year especially with the juniors and sophomores up they are shooting the ball, playing defense, that will keep us strong throughout the year," Gruenthal said. "Everybody is ready to play coming off the bench."
Geneva, coming off a 58-43 loss to Oswego Monday and playing without Phil Lorenz (broken finger) and Mike Trimble (broken hand), fell behind 5-0 before back-to-back 3s by Mark Becker and Leahy followed by a Drew White bucket put the Vikings ahead 10-7.
The Vikings started the second quarter well scoring 6 of the first 7 points before Naperville Central got going on the game-breaking 27-0 run. The Redhawks held Geneva to 11-of-30 shooting from the field, forced 19 turnovers and outrebounded the Vikings 23-16.
"These kids have been doing it since I got them this summer," said Kramer, who praised his team's senior leadership. "They play so hard and just wear you down. Geneva is not a bad basketball team and we got them doing things they don't want them to do."
After scoring 22 points Monday against Marmion, the sophomore Czarnowski led all players with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 5 blocked shots. The Redhawks will finish pool play Wednesday against Oswego (2-0).
Geneva will play at noon Wednesday against Marmion who also is 0-2 after losing to Oswego 80-50 Tuesday. Becker, Chapman and Drew White all had 6 points to lead the Vikings, who for the second straight game struggled in the second half.
"The first half other than 2 or 3 possessions we ran the offense the way this team needs to run it and now we just have to figure out a way to do it 32 minutes," Ralston said. "In that respect it was a mirror of last night. I don't know if it is we're tired or what it is but we need to do a better job withstanding that kind of pressure."