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Girls Basketball: Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum gets win 500
Updated: November 18, 2011 9:02PM
It probably felt more like 500 turnovers, but with a 45-25 win over Metea Valley Friday night Naperville Central finally got coach Andy Nussbaum his 500th career victory.
“It’s pretty gratifying,” Nussbaum said. “We’ve had a lot of good players. We’ve had a lot of success and I’m honored to have been the coach for every one of them.”
On the third try, Nussbaum’s team finally made good on reaching the milestone, overcoming 27 turnovers and too many fouls to pull away in the fourth quarter.
“I think we made four turnovers before we were two minutes into the game,” Nussbaum said. “Our girls are excited and playing to be what we know we can be. And I think we’re excited head-to-toe instead of shoulders-to-toe. We need to relax mentally a bit.”
Emma Donahue got the Redhawks (1-1) off to a good start as host of their Tip-Off Tournament, scoring six first quarter points, but finished with just 10 after the Mustangs (0-2) picked up the interior defense.
“They were working real hard to get around and double teaming,” Donahue said. “They played hard on our perimeter players passing in. Overall, it was hard to go high-low.”
Redhawks’ senior Sarah Lang came off the bench to knock down two huge 3s in the first quarter, which created some separation.
The Mustangs were ice cold shooting, going to half down 18-8 with just one field goal to their credit.
“We came out cold shooting wise, but you can’t have much success when you throw the ball away,” said Metea coach Kris Kalivas, her team committing 32 turnovers. “We had more turnovers than points. When you turn the ball over it’s going to be a tough, long night and it was.”
Megan Geldernick scored 10 of her 12 points in the second half for Metea, while Amira Turner grabbed 10 rebounds, but the Mustangs were hurt by the absence of 6-foot-1 Anna Petersen, who was on a softball recruiting visit, and they also lost guard Bria Walker to an ankle injury in the third quarter.
Jill D’Amico scored 10 points for the Redhawks, who likely won’t get tested until they play Bartlett this coming Tuesday.
“We’re making some shaky decisions, but hopefully that will take care of itself,” Nussbaum said. “That’s we scheduled this tournament, so we play five games in nine days and work those kinks out.”
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