Naperville Central clinches share of DVC title

Glenbard North coach Joe Larson is in no way trying to say that Naperville Central is better off when star Drew Crawford is on the bench.

But what the Panthers coach did want to make clear Friday night is that this year's Redhawks team is indeed a team, a solid one that has now captured back-to-back DuPage Valley Conference titles.

Crawford led all scorers with 24 points as Naperville Central (21-2, 11-0) defeated the Panthers 69-55 to stay perfect in the DVC and claim at least a share of a second straight league crown.

"They have a great leader in Crawford, but they also have a lot of good pieces," said Larson, whose team dropped to 7-15 overall and 5-6 in league play.

Larson had to be impressed by the Redhawks' Dave Mallett, who dropped in four 3-pointers on his way to a season-high 22 points. He was equally impressed by the five players who worked together well in the third quarter while Crawford took a seat with 4 fouls.

When Crawford was whistled with 2:52 left to go in the third, he went to the bench with his team on top 47-38. But the Panthers, who were led by center Evan Watkins' 19 points and 9 rebounds, could not take advantage. Instead, Mallett hit a short jumper, Matt Neufeld had a tip-in and, following a bucket from Watkins, baskets from Nick Linne and Neufeld gave Naperville Central a 55-40 advantage.

"When Drew got the fourth foul we really spread it around well," said Mallett, who had 13 points in the first half as the visitors built a 38-31 lead at the break. "We executed our offense real well tonight, and I got some open shots."

Larson added: "They take good shots almost every time down. And they're still a good team (even with Crawford out). I think they might even have moved the ball around better when he was out for a while."

Crawford likes to see his teammates light up the scoreboard, even while he is in the game.

"All season long I like to penetrate and throw it out to guys for 3s," said Crawford, who added 7 rebounds and 4 blocks. "Dave shot the ball real well and we also executed well on offense and got a lot of layups."

Naperville Central coach Peter Kramer was proud to claim another conference crown.

"Repeat. We've talked about it since Day One," he said. "In this conference it's tough to repeat. It was a great team win."

James Fleming and Marko Govedarica joined Watkins to give Glenbard North three players in double figures, but the Panthers never recovered from a first half in which the Redhawks shot 14 of 27 from the floor and the hosts went 9 of 21.