Naperville Central’s boys basketball team lost to DeKalb in a conference game on Feb. 7. The Redhawks were unable to overcome DeKalb’s physicality and defensive pressure, resulting in a 44-56 defeat.
From the opening tip, DeKalb established dominance. At the end of the first half, the Redhawks were trailing by a significant margin, with a score of 14-31.
Despite a noticeable improvement in effort and execution during the second half, Central was unable to cut into the lead enough to threaten a comeback.
Junior Casey Cooperkawa led Naperville Central with ten points, while junior TJ Hillman contributed nine.
“I think today we improved a lot since the North game,” Hillman said. “During the North game, we didn’t have as much effort as we did tonight. We were chasing guys, we’re having help-side defense. I think today was the best effort we’ve seen in a while.”
While the team’s effort improved, they still faced challenges in the paint. DeKalb’s athleticism, both on defense and offense, made it difficult for Central to execute their plays.
“They’re really athletic,” Hillman said. “When you drive the lane, they’ve got three or four guys that are in there and going to swat you, so it was tough to get shots up in the paint. We’d kick out and trust our shooters.”
The Redhawks’ current conference record is 1-7, putting them in sixth place.
“I think coming off a game where we didn’t have the effort that I think we wanted to have, our effort was there in the first half, we just weren’t making the shots that we [needed] to make to play with a team as good as DeKalb,” Wilson said. “So the message was to stay positive, keep the effort where it was, and those shots will start to fall. And they did a little bit in the second half.”
The Redhawks will compete in the IHSA State Series on March 4. Central will play in the Benet Sectional, which currently includes three Chicago Sun-Times ranked teams.
“I think we can always be better off the ball, moving off the ball, cutting to the basket, and just being ready to knock down shots when we catch the ball in the right position,” Wilson said.
Despite the loss, the team looks forward to their next games against Oswego and Metea Valley.
“We’ve got two winnable teams next week that we’ve got to beat,” Hillman said. “We have to play well as a team, come together, and push ourselves at Saturday and Sunday practice. I think if we work really hard this week and get those two wins, it’d be huge.”