Turnovers costly for Aurora Central

Updated: August 24, 2011 12:37AM

Heading into Tuesday night’s Class 3A DeKalb Super-Sectional at Northern Illinois University against Rock Island, Aurora Central Catholic coach Nate Drye listed several keys to pulling the upset. One was to take it eight minutes at a time to stay in the game early. The second was to limit turnovers and force the Rocks to run their offense through the Chargers’ strong team defense.

The keys were right on, and the Chargers (17-14) executed them through the first 18 minutes. Unfortunately, they could not hang on for the final 18.

Rock Island (28-3) led 19-15 after one quarter, then built up a 34-24 halftime advantage thanks to a 9-2 finishing kick that saw ACC commit four turnovers resulting in four Rocks points. The Chargers quickly cut the lead in half in the third quarter to trail 34-29 with 6:43 to go in the quarter, but the Rocks went on a game-deciding 15-1 run fueled by three ACC turnovers.

On the game, the Chargers turned it over just 12 times, but the Rocks converted that into 17 points.

The fact that number matched the margin of victory proved Drye’s point even further.

“We had to make them go through our defense to score because they’re so fast and they swarm to the basket on any type of steal,” Drye said. “We needed to limit those and that’s what happened in that (15-1) run. They got a couple steals and converted them right away into baskets.

“When we made them go through our defense, they struggled to score, struggled to know what to do against it. It’s a weird look and we put some pressure on some of those other guys to shoot. And the more they went through our defense the happier we were. We couldn’t do it quite enough.”

When the Chargers weren’t turning it over during those key stretches of the game, they weren’t scoring either.

After an incredibly efficient first quarter in which ACC missed just four two-point field goals and all but one point came from inside the paint, the team struggled to find such scoring lanes when the Rocks went on their two big runs.

“They were overplaying us the entire game, but there was a point in the game I think we weren’t really looking for the back cuts as much,” said Chargers guard Ryan Harreld, who led the team with 18 points. “That kind of hurt us.”

Block party canceled

Chargers forward Robert DeMyers came into the game averaging near seven blocks per game and had a nine-block effort in the sectionals against Marian Central Catholic, but the 6-4 junior did not get a hand on Rock Island shot the entire game.

“It was pretty hard,” he said. “They did a great job of pump faking and (creating) misdirections in the air.”

Long range woes

Aurora Central Catholic made just 3 of 16 from the 3-point line, and many of those came from behind the red college-length stripe.

“That’s not going to get it done against them,” Drye said. “We needed to make a few more. If we’re going to beat a team like that we’ve got to make more shots. It’s that simple. I think we did a good job getting looks.”

Harreld was just 1 of 7 while Matt Meyers went 2 for 5.

Moment of levity

A little over five minutes into the game, Rock Island’s Chasson Randle came up with a steal and streaked toward the other end of the court for an uncontested dunk in front of the ACC student section. The Stanford-bound guard tried to keep it simple — a straight two-handed jam with no flourish.

Only he missed.

Then he hung on the rim in an effort to maybe tap it back in, but was assessed a technical foul.

“I don’t know what it was,” Randle said afterward, a smile from ear to ear. “I had to laugh it off. I was a little worried, but my teammates picked me up.”

The miss prevented the Rocks from going up 10-6 and stopped the flow of the game, allowing the Chargers to keep it close after the first eight minutes.

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