Naperville Central avoids letdown

It would have been easy for the Naperville Central girls basketball team to suffer a letdown after seeing its chances of finishing first in the DuPage Valley Conference dwindle to a long shot.

However, the opposite happened.

The Redhawks are playing with renewed fire. They're trying to keep their slim title hopes alive and were successful Thursday night as they jumped all over host Glenbard East early in beating the Rams 53-37 in Lombard.

"It's not going to happen unless we take care of our business," said Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum, whose club sits in fourth place, two games behind DVC leader Wheaton North. "It's possible, but it's not going to happen if we don't win 'em all.

"We just kind of feel like we're a better team than what we've been playing, so we just started attacking the game with a little bit more intensity, and I think it shows."

Claire Fleming lit the fuse for Naperville Central (17-7, 7-3). The 5-foot-10 sophomore forward opened the scoring by draining two 3-pointers.

Maggie Brust put Glenbard East (8-14, 2-8) on the board with a baseline jumper.

Fleming answered with a lay-in in transition. That was the start of a 16-2 run for the Redhawks that put them ahead 22-4 early in the second quarter.

"I think we just realize that losing really isn't an option anymore," Fleming said of her team's urgent play. "We have to really just keep up the intensity and keep playing our hardest until it's over, and then whatever happens, happens.

"Things have to happen with other teams along the way, so we can't really focus on other teams. We have to focus on what we're doing."

Naperville Central took a 30-11 advantage into the locker room after shooting 50 percent from the field in the first half.

The Redhawks led by as much as 47-17 in the second half.

Senior forward Jessica Carter led the winners in scoring with 11 points. Fleming finished with 10.

Glenbard East received a team-high 7 points from junior guard Kelsey Taylor.

"I feel that Naperville Central outhustled us," Rams coach Nicole Miller said. "We got off to that 2-11 start and we really never recovered from that kind of jump, and they just extended (the lead). We weren't really able to find any kind of flow to execute."