West Aurora used stifling second-half defense to put Naperville Central on ice Friday night.
The No. 18 Blackhawks (21-5) held the visiting Redhawks to just three field goals in the final two quarters on the way to the 66-43 Class AA regional championship victory. It was West Aurora’s 30th regional title.
“We gave them too much freedom to do what they wanted to do in the first half,” West Aurora coach Gordon Kerkman said. “The second half, I really felt our defense picked it up quite a bit.”
Byron Thompson and Monzell Townsend led the Blackhawks with 18 points each while teammate Mike Fowler added nine.
Central’s Tim Szatko finished with a game-high 19 points while Bob Cuckler added 11.
West Aurora moves on to next week’s East Aurora sectional against the host Tomcats.
Naperville (17-11) entered Friday’s showdown with seven victories in its last eight games. The Redhawks’ only loss in that stretch was a two-point decision to West Aurora last month.
The Blackhawks burst to early leads of 6-0 and 12-5 Friday, thanks in part to eight Naperville Central turnovers. But the Redhawks rebounded in the final 2:47 of the quarter to tie the game 14-14, thanks to Dave Lannon’s three-pointer with just two seconds left.
In the second quarter, West twice built five-point leads, including a 28-23 edge after Townsend’s bucket with 35 seconds remaining. But Central’s Ken Hill trimmed the lead to 28-25 with his bank shot with three seconds left.
West Aurora came out strong to open the third as it started to successfuly work the ball inside. Townsend started things with his team’s first six points–all on close-in play. Thompson, meanwhile, closed the quarter with the Blackhawks’ final five points as they extended the lead to 41-35.
“We wanted to get it inside a little more,” Kerkman said. “I felt we had too many situations in the first half where we should have got the ball inside and we didn’t.”
West pushed the lead to 10 points–at 47-37–on Jamaal Thompson’s bank shot with 5:32 to play. The advantage ballooned to 20 by the 1:43 mark when Fowler hit his third free throw in 17 seconds to make it 61-41.
It wasn’t just Blackhawk defense that made the difference. The Redhawks hurt their own cause with 28 turnovers.
Friday’s victory was West Aurora’s third of the season over Central. The Blackhawks won a 50-32 decision in January and added a 50-48 win two weeks ago.
