Aurora Christian pulls away from ACC in 2nd half
Aurora Christian's basketball team has faced more than its share of zone defenses throughout the early portion of the season.
"We've actually seen more zone than man (defense) this year," said Eagles coach Dan Beebe after his team's 60-41 Metro Suburban Blue victory over cross-town rival Aurora Central Catholic (2-4, 0-2) Friday night at Aurora Christian.
"It's good because a lot of times this early in the season you don't practice against zone - you practice against man. This is our ninth game and that certainly helped us coming into this game."
It took a little while for the Eagles (8-1, 1-0) to seize control, however, as the Chargers grabbed an 18-15 lead on Colin Dean's 3-point basket with 5 minutes left in the second quarter.
ACC still led 19-17 when the Eagles started to get their footing.
After a layup by Lawrence Nyong (8 points) tied the score at 19-19, the Eagles took the lead for good on Taaj Davis' 3-pointer from the top of the key with 2:03 remaining before halftime.
Davis, who finished with 14 points and 4 steals, then converted a putback as Aurora Christian went into the intermission with a 24-19 advantage.
"We played all right for about the first 12 minutes and then the last four minutes of the second quarter, we gave up the lead," said Chargers coach Nathan Drye.
"Then we came out in the second half and we couldn't get off 19 (points)."
Aurora Christian forced back-to-back turnovers that led to baskets - a runner by Karsen Olsen and Michael Cruger's 3-point play that followed Cruger's blocked shot at the defensive end.
A layup by 6-foot-7 junior Will Wolfe (9 points, 3 assists) capped the 7-0 run that extended the Eagles' lead to 31-21 with 5:04 left in the third quarter.
"ACC always does a great job with what they do - they play a great zone," said Beebe. "We thought the pace of the game was at their level so we figured that we better get the pace going a little bit.
"We started to press a little and we started hitting some shots in the third quarter."
Sophomore guard Jaehshon Thomas capped the Eagles' eventual 29-4 surge by knocking down 4 consecutive shots, including three 3-pointers.
"In the first half, I couldn't get anything going so I tried to slow down in the third quarter and let the game come to me and not force anything," said Thomas, who scored 13 of his game-high 19 points during the Eagles' 29-8 third-quarter run.
"My teammates started finding me and I started hitting shots."
Jonas Cebulski and Dean paced the Chargers with 11 points apiece.
"You can't give up runs - they're explosive," Drye said of the Eagles. "We've got to do a much better job getting off runs - getting that bucket that gets us going again.
"We put together a decent half but it's not enough. We didn't give ourselves a chance."
ACC finished with 23 turnovers.
"We're making progress," said Drye. "It didn't look like it there but we are improving. We'll get better."