Boys Basketball: De La Salle too much for Naperville Central

Updated: November 25, 2011 8:11PM

It’s hard not to notice Illinois coach Bruce Weber when he’s recruiting a player, or maybe even three Division I-caliber athletes.

He was at the Oswego Hoops for Healing Tournament to watch De La Salle and it’s trio of Gavin Schilling, Alex Foster and Alvin Ellis.

What he witnessed was a Naperville Central team that wasn’t willing to concede the championship to anyone based on wow factor alone.

The Redhawks made the Meteors work for it, but fell 66-61 Friday night despite a hot-shooting performance.

“The David and Goliath factor is definitely there in a lot our games and we expect that, but that’s what we needed,” De La Salle coach Tom White said. “We came here to play a big game and we got a good game so that’s great.”

Redhawks’ 6-foot-8 sophomore center Nick Czarnowski might have garnered some of Weber’s attention, holding tournament MVP Schilling to just six points, while scoring 11 of his own, but it was a tough task facing three or more guys virtually his same height.

“With the competitive season I’m used to seeing it, but it’s different with this team,” Czarnowski said. “We need we had to come out hard. We were definitely mismatched when it came to height.”

Central (3-1) was not mismatched when it came to heart, however, coming out aggressive and holding a 20-20 tie at the end of one quarter behind three Austin Pauga 3s and one from Bryce Kirk.

“We did a very good job taking care of the ball against their quickness,” Redhawks coach Pete Kramer said. “I don’t think we’ll see a quicker team all year. That’s great experience for us. There’s times where we’ve been very young and these kids are growing up fast.”

Kirk finished with 10 points, while all-tournament selection Jabari Hartfield came off the bench to score seven and neutralize some of the Meteors’ quickness. Non-starter Ryan Anthony added nine.

After being down one at half, De La Salle (4-0) built a 13-point lead in the third quarter only to have the Redhawks come right back and close the lead to two at the 2:21 mark of the fourth quarter on Kirk’s second 3.

They just didn’t quite enough to close as Foster (20 points) and Ellis (19 points) sealed the win at the line.

“I think we came out in the second half a little soft and might have lightened up,” Czarnowski said. “We can’t do that, but I thought we did a really good job of coming back.”

Naperville North 63, Oswego 55

After starting the fourth quarter down by 10 points, the Oswego boys’ basketball team finally made a run against Naperville North and took a one-point lead with 45 seconds left on Elliot McGaughey’s 3-point basket.

But the Huskies’ Mike Keane connected on a conventional 3-point play, and an Oswego technical foul immediately after led to four more free throws and a seven-point swing as North picked up a 63-55 win in the third-place game of the Oswego Hoops for Healing Tournament.

“It was a lack of everything that makes any basketball sense to me whatsoever,” said Panthers coach Kevin Schnable, following a 22-for-59 shooting performance in which 26 shot attempts were 3s. “We’re not very team-oriented right now. We care more about ‘me’ than ‘we.’ We got a long list of guys that like to shoot the 3, but don’t play ‘D.’ That’s not a way to win basketball games.”

Elliot McGaughy scored a game-high 34 points on 15-of-23 shooting including 3-of-10 from 3-point range, but the Huskies’ belligerent inside presence created a nine-point edge at half in a decisive second quarter.

The 6-foot-6 Keane came off the bench to score a team-high 17 points for the Huskies (2-2), while 6-foot-8 Mike Johnson scored his six points in the second quarter.

“Every practice we work big man drills to get stronger inside,” Keane said. “We may not have the height, but we definitely have the strength and we like to run up and down the floor.”

Derek Westman scored 10 points and Chris Mullen’s six free throws in the fourth quarter pushed his total to 13.

“Even though they came storming back, our kids stuff with it and kept their moxie and made free throws,” North coach Jeff Powers said.

Ryan West scored nine for Oswego (2-2), which has several kinks it needs to work out to make a run in conference play.

“It doesn’t come down to one play or one decision,” Schnable said. “The biggest disappointment I have I’d we played the way we did the other day, after a film session this morning. It’s one thing to make mistakes. We all do, but correct them. We repeated them. When you keep repeating them, it’s no longer a mistake, it’s a habit. So we have some bad, bad habits to break right now.”

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