O'Brien, Naperville Central celebrate tournament championship

Tyler O'Brien isn't going to wow the crowd with acrobatic drives to the basket.

Rather, the Naperville Central senior is going to do it with less theatrics but for more points from about 20 feet away.

After driving out of control toward the hoop and missing a shot late in the fourth quarter during Saturday night's championship game against Lemont in the 90th annual Chuck Dayton Holiday Classic in DeKalb, O'Brien went back to doing what he does best - making 3-pointers.

His 3-pointer with 34 seconds left was huge. It helped the Redhawks hold on for a 48-44 victory in their first appearance in the tournament.

"I hit a few (3-pointers) in the first quarter and that got me going throughout the game," he said. "So my teammates were looking for me and my teammates and my coaches have full faith that my shots are going in so they look for me when I'm hot."

Jack Kramer's layup had pulled Lemont to within 41-40 with 52 seconds left as the Indians rallied from an 11-point deficit.

They couldn't get any closer, though, as O'Brien was left wide open on his fourth 3-pointer of the game and first since knocking down 3 in the first quarter.

"He's got a lot of confidence in his shot, and he knew that he had made a couple of bad decisions there where he took tough shots and all of a sudden they're scoring on the other end," Redhawks coach Pete Kramer said. "I think he just said to himself that he was going to make up for it here, and that's a great shot for him. He's a very good 3-point shooter so I have no problem with him taking it. Now if he would've missed it, it would've been a little tougher."

Cameron Daugherty and Dillon Kane each made a pair of free throws in the final 15 seconds to seal the victory for Naperville Central (10-2).

"It was a great team win," Kramer said. "Tyler was huge early in the game, but everyone else contributed in different ways. I thought (Nicholas) Baskin did a fantastic job defensively for the most part on (Nate Ferguson) and that kid is a player."

Ben Wolf was named tournament MVP but wasn't much of an offensive factor as he battled foul trouble and was held to just 3 points. O'Brien proved to be the difference maker with 16 points to pace a balanced attack that also included 8 points from Dougherty and 7 each from Kane and Baskin. Thomas Dahl and Daniel Raab both came off the bench to hit 3-pointers and Dahl had 6 rebounds.

"The thing about our team is we all work hard to make everyone better and it shows in the games," O'Brien said. "When we practice we try not to look at starters or JV or anything. We're all working for the team because everyone is going to have an opportunity to get in at some point."