Inside strength lifts ACC

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:36AM

The two biggest areas of struggle for the Aurora Central Catholic boys basketball team have been rebounding and free throw shooting.

Friday night at Aurora Christian, those two areas were the difference for the Chargers in a 62-56 Suburban Christian Conference Gold win.

"Every game is big, but this was huge because we played so bad last week that we needed to win just to get moving in the right direction again," ACC Coach Nathan Drye said. "You can't really control if the ball goes in the basket, but you can control your effort. I thought we did a great job defensively and rebounding, and that's why we won."

Ryan Harreld led the Chargers with 15 points, while Robert DeMyers added 14 points and nine rebounds and Tim Fernandez chipped in 13 points and nine rebounds.

Combined with Joey McEachern's game-high 13 rebounds and a 21-for-28 night at the free throw line, the Chargers (9-10, 5-1) were able to hold off the comeback-minded Eagles (9-12, 4-3).

"Rebounding is just wanting the ball," McEachern said. "Just go for the ball every time. They were a little bit of a smaller team, and we thought we could out-board them."

The Chargers outrebounded the Eagles 39-28, getting second-chance points, which offset the runs the Eagles made.

Aurora Christian fell behind early, down nine at the break, as Harreld hit three first-half 3s for ACC.

But Nick Marema's three-pointer at the start of the fourth quarter completed a comeback to tie the game at 51.

That's when Fernandez turned two rebounds into 3 of 4 made free throws and DeMyers followed with a basket to keep ACC ahead.

"We had to pound it inside the zone because we had a huge size advantage," said Fernandez, understanding how the ACS zone started taking away Harreld's open looks.

Ryan McQuade scored a game-high 19 points for the Eagles, while C.J. Schutt had 14 points, Ryan Suttle nine, and Marema eight.

"We clawed back," McQuade said. "That's all we could do. They came out on fire, and we had to fight back in the second half. They're a big team and really strong."

None of that, however, took away the sting of losing again to its quarter-mile-apart rival, while also having to turn around and play Marmion tonight for the second time.

"Losing twice to them is not the funnest thing in the world, but these things happen," McQuade said. "Guess we'll have to come back and get them next year."

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.