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Naperville Central overcomes Waubonsie Valley

After dropping three of its previous four games and falling behind 14-6 early Friday against visiting Waubonsie Valley, Naperville Central was a team in desperate need of a lift.

Enter Nick Kramer.

Kramer buried three 3-pointers as part of a 13-2 run spanning 5:27 of the first and second quarters that jumpstarted the Redhawks to a 50-37 victory in the DuPage Valley Conference. Kramer finished with 17 points as Naperville Central improved to 13-9 and 7-5 in the conference.

"I had a rough game the other night at Neuqua Valley, but just being at home and this atmosphere makes me feel more comfortable," Kramer said. "This is really good for me and really good for the team. Just getting a win, this is a big game for us and a confidence booster."

Waubonsie Valley grabbed the early 8-point lead on a 3-pointer by Brian Phillips with 3:31 remaining in the first quarter. That's when Nick Kramer and Naperville Central's defense took over. After surrendering 16 points over the first 6:29, the Redhawks limited the Warriors to just 16 points over the next 23:08.

Meanwhile, Naperville Central extended its lead to 44-27 after 24 minutes. A 7-0 run to open the fourth quarter got Waubonsie Valley within 44-34, but James Kendrick, Harrison Hallstrom and Matthew Meier each made a pair of free throws over the final 1:24 to seal the win.

"We didn't start the game really well and we didn't finish the game really well, but in between was really good," Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer said. "The kids did a nice job of finding Nick once he got the hot hand. We've been a little hesitant on offense lately, and tonight we were a lot more confident and ball movement was the key."

If ball movement was the key on offense, communication was the difference on defense.

"We communicated really well on defense tonight," Meier said. "The last couple of games we weren't talking on defense. We have to get back to how we were playing at the beginning of the year. We have to carry this out to Wheaton South on Tuesday and finish up the conference and hopefully regionals."

Sophomore Jaquan Bowman scored 10 points and Demetrius Ewing and freshman Eric Cannon both had 7 for Waubonsie Valley, which fell to 4-17 and 0-12 in the conference with its eighth consecutive loss.

"We didn't shoot the ball well from the field and we committed silly fouls that got them to the line a lot quicker than we would have wanted them to," Waubonsie Valley coach Chaz Taft said. "Their matchup zone slowed us down and we have to be able to hit shots from the perimeter.

"Our energy is better the second half of the season," he added. "We're just trying to find guys who can make shots, we're trying to find guys who can get consecutive stops on the defense end of the floor and we're trying to find guys who can rebound competitively."

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