Boys basketball: Crystal Lake Central puts things together for win at Richmond-Burton

RICHMOND – Crystal Lake Central left the 2023 portion of the boys basketball season with a bitter taste in its mouth after two lopsided losses to finish Marengo’s E.C. Nichols Holiday Classic.

The Tigers started 2024 off in a positive manner, with an emphasis on playing together, and validation in Saturday’s 55-41 nonconference victory over Richmond-Burton at Lou Ramirez Gymnasium.

“I thought our halftime togetherness, communication, eye contact we had with one another, stealing inches, just trying to make small improvements and go out and execute as a squad,” Central coach Dan Oziminski said. “I thought we did that. We had that attentiveness from the halftime adjustments, which were, how do we facilitate? How do we play more together?

“Sharing the ball and not maybe taking the first open look, but get it moving and take the second open look.”

Central (5-13) jumped out to a 28-20 halftime lead with a 16-7 second quarter advantage. The Tigers pushed it to 42-28 with a 14-8 third quarter.

“We started playing as a team more,” forward Jake Terlecki said. “We had to do it together. It mainly started with our defense. We had to try harder on our defense. We succeeded at that. We played as a team on offense and didn’t take bad shots, we got some easy buckets and got back on defense.”

Terlecki scored eight of his 14 points with mainly short jumpers in the second and third quarters. Guard Preston Mast led the Tigers with 17 points, scoring 13 of those in the middle two quarters with three 3-pointers.

“When we got to the locker room (at halftime), the message was we have to play together, stick together on defense, talking was the biggest thing and we really communicated in the second half,” Mast said. “The communicating really helped us with where they were at. They have a good zone offense and just communicating help and things like that.”

R-B (9-5) shot 28.6% on field goals against the Tigers’ 1-2-2 zone defense. The Rockets led 13-12 after the first quarter.

“A lot of it was our execution of things,” Rockets coach Rich Petska said. “We did things that worked and then we went away from them. You can’t win a game with 19 turnovers and shoot 19%, that’s what it felt like.

“We just didn’t have it today. A lot of things have gone our way this year, we’ve been real competitive in all our games. We just underperformed. Not the level we’ve been at.”

We had to do it together. It mainly started with our defense. We had to try harder on our defense. We succeeded at that. We played as a team on offense and didn’t take bad shots, we got some easy buckets and got back on defense.”

—  Jake Terlecki, Crystal Lake Central forward

Central made the semifinals at Marengo, then fell to Rockford Christian (67-40) and Fenton (60-30) in its last two games. Oziminski was pleased with the effort he saw on Saturday.

“We had two of our poorest games over Christmas,” Oziminski said. “I was glad this was on the schedule because I knew they would give us a fight.

“We had five guys flying out (on defense) and getting to the ball. We spoke to that. We were closing out, we were moving when the ball was on the move. As the ball was in the air we moved to the next position. It was all five getting to the right spot.”

Luke Robinson led R-B with 10 points and Ryan Wisniewski had eight along with eight rebounds.

“It’s great to start off the new year 1-0, kind of going over the basic principles, staying together as a team,” Mast said. “Going into the Fox Valley (Conference) we’re really going to need that.”