Boys Basketball: Naperville Central rolls past Libertyville behind Nick Czarnowski

Updated: December 29, 2011 10:54PM

Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer said his team takes its lead from the play of Nick Czarnowski. And the Redhawks did just that in their 65-49 victory over Libertyville in the semifinals of the Hardwood Classic in Wheeling Thursday.

Czarnowski had a huge second quarter to put the Redhawks in front and then his teammates took over from there.

“The kids battled,” Kramer said. “We are going to keep playing hard. I am extremely proud of our effort tonight.”

“We all know our roles,” said Czarnowski, who finished with 20 points and nine rebounds.

“They trust me to do my thing and I trust them to do their thing.”

Just like Wednesday against St. Viator, Naperville Central (8-3) dug themself into a hole early.

Libertyville (9-3), thanks to the play of Ellis Matthews (27 points), built an 18-9 early in the second quarter.

Naperville Central then turned up the defensive pressure. The Redhawks did not allow a field goal for over nine minutes.

Meanwhile on the offensive end, Czarnowski took over. The sophomore scored 11 of his team’s next 17 points as Naperville Central led 26-23 at the break.

“We turned it up,” Czarnowkski said. “I thought we did a good job communicating together.”

Naperville Central pulled away with a spurt early in the fourth quarter when the Redhawks scored eight unanswered points to make it 49-38 with 4:20 to play.

“We had been in a funk for a couple games,” Kramer said. “And we came out of it in the second half against St. Viator. And I thought we played a full game tonight.”

Dylan Pauga also had 20 points for the Redhawks while Ian Lewndowski chipped in 10 points.

Libertyville got 10 points from Griffin Pils.

© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.