Brown, West Aurora stymie Warren at Pontiac
PONTIAC - Traevon Brown was looking for a reprieve.
The West Aurora junior guard was still stinging from missing a potential game-winning shot against St. Charles East in his last appearance in a boys basketball game.
Brown did not have to wait long in the opener of the famed Pontiac Holiday Tournament on Thursday morning.
Brown ended the first half against Warren by scoring the last 10 points of the second quarter and metaphorically redeemed himself with the last of his five 3-pointers in the final 45 seconds of the Blackhawks' 72-50 victory.
"Last Friday (a 52-51 loss to St. Charles East) was terrible," said Brown, who disrupted the Blue Devils' offensive attack with 5 steals en route to his season-high 27 points. "I went 1-for-9 (from the field). I knew I was a better player than that. (My game) just came to me."
West Aurora senior post Jared Crutcher had a double-double by halftime as his back-to-back field goals off second-chance attempts were the foundation of Brown ending the second quarter on a personal 10-point unanswered run.
The resulting 14-0 West Aurora blitz entering halftime gave the Blackhawks a 37-22 lead at the intermission.
"We were right there," Warren coach Jon Jasnoch said. "The game is even, and all of a sudden it's a 15-point spread."
West Aurora (8-2), which will face second-seeded Curie (8-1) in the second quarterfinal on Friday afternoon, was offensively unstoppable in the third quarter.
The Blackhawks were nearly 50 percent (30-for-62) from the floor overall, pulverized the glass to the tune of a 39-18 advantage and also won the turnover battle (11 to 16).
West Aurora scored 24 points in the third quarter to make the final outcome academic.
Starters Damian Virgen, Latrone Kirkwood and Ben Young supplemented the combined 43 points Brown and Crutcher scored with respective totals of 9, 8 and 6 points.
The Blackhawks were content to run extended possessions in the fourth quarter after leading 61-41 after three quarters.
Crutcher was the unmistakable force to start the game. The 6-foot-5 Crutcher had 12 of his 16 points and 10 of his game-high 13 rebounds in the opening two quarters. Crutcher also had all 3 of his blocks in the first half.
"I don't know if (our players) knew what a great shot-blocker he is," Jasnoch said. "He carried them in the first half."
"The coaches always tell me to play my game: the blocks, the rebounds," Crutcher said. "That's all they tell me to do."
"He's 6-5, but he has a 7-foot wingspan," West Aurora coach Brian Johnson said of Crutcher. "He does that pretty much every night. It was on a bigger stage (at Pontiac) than normal."
Warren (6-5) was led by Branden Ellis (16 points), Barak Diehl (13) and Davis Catanus (10).