Raab sparks Naperville Central past West Chicago

Daniel Raab sat on the bench waiting for his number to be called.

As soon as the Naperville Central senior hit the hardwood he began hitting long-range shots. That gave the Redhawks the jolt they needed in a 63-46 victory over West Chicago in Thursday's second-round game at the 90th annual Chuck Dayton Holiday Classic in DeKalb.

Naperville Central (8-2) advances to play Schurz (10-0) at 8 p.m. Friday in a semifinal game.

"I thought we kept our composure early," Redhawks coach Pete Kramer said. "It wasn't that we weren't playing well, but we weren't scoring, but we fought through that and then got going."

They got going once Raab arrived on the floor with a hot hand in the second quarter.

With the Redhawks trailing 17-12, Raab hit the first of his four 3-pointers in the second quarter with 5:50 remaining. It ignited a 15-0 run that West Chicago didn't break until Sam Ricci converted a three-point play as the Redhawks jumped ahead 34-20 at halftime.

"I'm just always ready to go off the bench and spark the team," Raab said. "We just got off to a little bit of a slow start and that's going to happen sometimes in these holiday tournaments, and we didn't know what to expect from West Chicago since we didn't really get any film on them."

West Chicago (5-5) put its primary focus on limiting Naperville Central's big man, Ben Wolf, and it worked for a while before Raab and his teammates caught fire from long range.

The Redhawks made 7-of-22 3-pointers in the game, dropping 6 through the net in the second quarter.

"When you're playing a team with size and shooters you have to pick your poison," Wildcats coach Bill Recchia said. "We closed out the inside as much as could and we just didn't hit quite enough shots and that's the ballgame. If we knocked down a few of the 3s, which we normal do, it changes the complexion of the game."

Wolf scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the second half. Raab finished with 14 points and Nicholas Baskin added 11 points and 4 assists.

"With two to three guys collapsing on me, we knew if we were going to win we had to have guys knock down some shots," Wolf said. "Once we started doing that, it really opened up things inside for me."

The Redhawks emphasized shutting down West Chicago's perimeter game and held the Wildcats to 3-of-20 shooting from beyond the arc.

"We knew they could shoot the ball so we tried to take the 3-pointer away," Kramer said. "They got some easy buckets penetrating, but we wanted them to put the ball on the floor and not have open looks from 3."

Jason Gimre led West Chicago with 17 points while Ricci had 12 points and 8 rebounds.