Girls Basketball: Aurora Central overpowers Rockford Christian

Updated: December 15, 2011 9:50PM

Rockford Christian came to Aurora looking like a tough non-conference matchup for Aurora Central Catholic.

The visiting Royals sported an 8-1 record coming in and had 6-foot-5 center Emily Nylen patroling the paint. But the Chargers had more weapons on both ends of the court and dominated from start to finish, routing the Royals 56-42 in a game that was not that close.

Aurora Central improved to 10-2 on the young season, getting contributions from a number of players in a balanced effort.

“I’m pleased with the way we took (Nylen) out of the game,” said Aurora Central coach Mark Fitzgerald. “It’s another step on the way, against a good team. Ten wins already for us, that’s a record for our program.”

Ashley Wilk led the Chargers in scoring with 13 points, and the 5-foot-10 senior forward pulled down 11 rebounds, seven in the second half.

Aurora Central got off to 14-6 lead after one quarter. Center Katilyn Rosa may not have been a force offensively, but she made her presence felt on the boards. She had five rebounds in the opening stanza and nine of her 11 boards by halftime. Rosa and Wilk kept Rockford Christian’s second-chance opportunities to a minimum.

Leading scorer Jackie Cardona, still rounding into form after missing time with a back injury, got going just before halftime. The senior got her first points on a give-and-go from Rosa, then on the next possession swished a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer which gave her team a 33-20 lead. Cardona finished with 11 points.

While the Chargers had the game under control in the first half, at the intermission Fitzgerald told his players to take the ball to the hoop more aggressively. They paid attention, attacking the basket with Cardona, Wilk, and Tesa Alderman scoring on drives. Aurora Central opened the third period with a decisive 14-4 run, including a three-pointer by Alex DeCraene, before the Royals called timeout.

Fitzgerald will be able to work on finishing (the Chargers only scored five points in the fourth quarter) and free-throw shooting (12 of 27 for the game).

“I didn’t like the way we finished, but this group is meant to go fast and we had to slow them down a bit,” noted Fitzgerald. “And we work on free throws every day, so I don’t know what happened tonight.”

Effort and physical play were plentiful, though. Rosa, Wilk, and DeCraene (10 points off the bench) combined to limit Nylen to 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting from the field.

Junior Lisa Rodriguez contributed nine points to the Aurora Central offense. Tesa Alderman scored only five points, but had a solid game defensively with three steals.

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