Zielinski's 25 lead St. Edward over Aurora Central Catholic

He can effectively shoot the 3-pointer and drive to the basket for layups. He finds the open man and plays solid defense.

You get the picture.

Senior Ben Zielinski is the leader of the 2022-2023 St. Edward Green Wave.

Zielinski scored 25 points with three 3-pointers and 5 assists to lead the Wave to a 59-39 win over Aurora Central Catholic in Metro Suburban action in Elgin Friday night.

"Ben is having a solid year and he is the leader on the team," said coach Andy Zielinski, Ben's dad. "He had a great game tonight. We got up early and did a good job of handling their physical play."

Zielinski scored 11 points in the first half and 14 in the second half and was 5-of-5 from the free-throw line.

"Being a coach's son I have been a leader my entire life," said Ben Zielinski. "We had good prep coming into the game. We had good ball movement early and got good shots. We have good team chemistry and we are striding in the right direction toward end of the year."

Matthew Morrice, a sophomore transfer from St. Viator, nailed a 15-pointer and Zielinski buried a 3 as the Wave (13-10, 4-1) grabbed a 5-0 advantage.

The key run for the Wave came in the second quarter.  

Holding a slim 16-11 lead, St. Edward scored 12 consecutive points led by 5 points from Zielinski and a 3 from Michael O'Brien. With 1:22 left in the first half the Wave had a 28-11 advantage.

The Green Wave led 30-16 at halftime.

Morrice and O' Brien added 9 apiece for the winners.

Ben Grunloh led the Chargers (6-16, 2-6) with 21.

"We played hard the entire game and easily could have cashed it in the second half," said ACC coach Tim Swanson. "I can't fault the kids that the ball didn't drop."