Aurora Christian tops Aurora Central to end losing streak
Everyone knows losing stinks — especially when those losses come in succession by 7, 5, 3 and 3 points like they had for Aurora Christian.
The Eagles ended their skid Friday night at home against Aurora Central Catholic. Zach Singer scored a career-high 21 points and Johnathan Harrell added 15 in a 65-50 Suburban Christian Blue victory.
“It was pretty tough,” Harrell said. “Every single day we were saying ‘move on, move on.’ And we’d get a close game and lose and get a close game and lose. It was good we all came out and played together and played hard. I’m glad our team was ready and focused today.”
Harrell provided the exclamation point for Aurora Christian (4-4, 1-1) with a steal and breakaway jam in the third quarter while the Eagles were expanding a 35-25 halftime lead to 57-38 going to the fourth quarter.
Singer scored 11 points in the third quarter as the Eagles outscored the Chargers 22-13.
“I’m more comfortable now, ready to play, playing my game,” Singer said. “We played as a team and that’s why we got the win. And we didn’t shoot as many 3s.”
The Eagles made just two 3-point baskets in the game. With Aurora Central (0-7, 0-3) playing its traditional 2-3 zone, the Eagles were effective getting the ball to Singer in the short corner, and he was the most efficient player as Aurora Christian shot nearly 50 percent from the field (25 of 52) through three quarters.
“I think the big difference tonight was we made the extra pass,” Aurora Christian coach Pat McNamara said. “We got some easy looks down there. The ball moved real good tonight. When we play well we’re really moving well and make the extra pass. When we don’t play well we dribble too much.”
The Eagles also dominated on the glass — with the Chargers’ 6-foot-7 Sean Anger still sidelined until January — by a 38-25 margin. Grant Schweisthal had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds while Singer and R.D. Lutze both grabbed 8 rebounds.
The Chargers took a couple early leads, the last one coming at 7-5 on a 3-pointer from Evan Schuetz. Freshman Mac Cowen canned a 3 to pull Aurora Central within 15-12 before Singer and Schweisthal scored inside to put the Eagles up 19-12 after a quarter.
Harrell’s 3 early in the second quarter gave the Eagles a 24-12 lead, and they maintained a double-digit lead most of the game. Their biggest advantage came at 65-41 before the Chargers ended the game on a 9-0 run.
“They played zone, I thought they would play more man,” Chargers coach Nate Drye said. “I thought that sucked a lot of life out of us. The game never got moving, it was so slow, we’re not good at that at all. We’re never going to pound people. We’re a transition team and I can’t remember a single fastbreak bucket we got. We can’t play at that pace.”
Matt Schaefer and Andy Czerak led the Chargers with 11 points each.
“We lost tonight because we refused to hit the glass,” Drye said. “We’re getting killed on the glass. We did nothing well tonight. That’s about as bad of game I can remember since I’ve been here. I think we’ve been playing better for the most part. Tonight was a step backward.”
The Chargers are off until next week’s East Aurora Tournament while the Eagles have a tough home game Saturday night against Wheaton Academy. McNamara hopes to get Wes Wolfe, who missed Friday with an ankle injury, back in the lineup.
“Wheaton Academy is really good, and they are young too so you know they are going to get better as the season goes on,” McNamara said.