Boys basketball: Naperville Central rolls to DVC victory
By Eddie Burns For Sun-Times Media February 1, 2013 9:56PM
Updated: February 2, 2013 12:17AM
It would have been understandable if Naperville Central came out sluggish against Wheaton Warrenville South.
After all, the Redhawks had just completed a grueling portion of their schedule which saw them go 1-2 against three of the area’s top teams in Glenbard East, Benet and West Aurora in a recent five-day span.
The Redhawks showed resolve as they scored the game’s first 13 points and dominated WW South by a 65-38 margin on Friday night in Wheaton to sweep DuPage Valley Conference season series from the Tigers.
“We were ready to get back on track,” said Central junior guard Ryan Antony. “We faced some tough opponents in the past week, but the season is a grind and you have to keep on working hard.”
Antony, Nicky Lopez, Rob Suntken and Mike Blaszczyk combined for the game’s first 13 points to put the Tigers in a quick hole.
“We continue to emphasize team basketball and sharing the basketball,” Central coach Pete Kramer said. “This group doesn’t care who scores. They just want to win. They want to compete and be successful. It is credit to them that they keep bouncing back. We could have laid an egg tonight, but they came out ready to go.”
The Redhawks (14-8, 7-3) led 31-19 at halftime and then they went on a 14-2 run to start the third quarter to put game away.
“We always talk about the importance of the first couple minutes of the third quarter and we wanted to jump on them right away and we did that,” said Antony, who finished with 12 points along with teammate Nick Czarnowski.
Blaszczyk scored 12 of his game-high 16 points during the third quarter when Central outscored the Tigers, 26-13.
“When Blaszczyk is on, it is fun to watch,” Kramer said. “He showed that in the third quarter. He has a lot of athletic ability about him.”
Both teams emptied their benches in the fourth quarter as everyone who dressed saw some playing time.
It was a familiar scene for WW South coach Robert Szorc as the Tigers (4-17, 1-9) struggled against a superior opponent.
“Good teams know how to put a team away and they did that to us,” Szorc said. “They didn’t let us make any type of a run. We are still on the roller coaster of when we play well. The challenge we have right now is to find a way to be consistent.”
Michael Kramer was the lone Tiger in double figures with 12 points.
