Hinsdale Central displayed a different way to win on Thursday night as the Red Devils defeated Proviso West 72-48 in a West Suburban Silver home game.
The Panthers (3-4, 1-2) came into the Hinsdale Central gym determined to speed up the pace and the Red Devils (6-1, 2-0) didn’t blink an eye.
The Red Devils’ two senior big men — 6-8 Matt Rafferty and 6-7 George Kiernan — shined brightest, combining for 38 points.
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“We haven’t had a game this fast paced but I think playing different styles is a great way to keep winning,” Rafferty said. “The more styles we can win in, the better we will be.”
“It’s important to be able to hang with the up-tempo teams,” Kiernan added. “Playing at this high speed is great exposure for us and shows that we can play at high speed.”
The key for both players was getting down the court and being ready for the ball when the guards broke Proviso West’s press. Rafferty has a sensational 3-point stroke, but didn’t try a single trey and still finished with a game-high 20 points. Meanwhile, Kiernan was 6-for-9 from the floor for 18 points.
“I think we all have great vision and the guards reward us for running down the court so we’re going to keep doing it,” Kiernan said.
“Coach definitely told us to push the ball and the guards did a great job doing that,” Rafferty added. “We run the floor and the first one down gets under the basket and tried to get a post entry. If not, it just opens up some other looks on the perimeter.”
Rafferty, who was also the starting quarterback for the football team, didn’t feel fatigued and credited that to coach Nick Latorre’s frenetic practices.
“Coach makes our practices harder than the game so when we come out here we’re in great shape and able to play the full game,” Rafferty said.
With Proviso West’s tallest player being 6-6, Rafferty and Kiernan were prepared to use their size to their advantage.
“We’re hard to stop when we’re flowing,” Kiernan said. “We know how to play with each other and we know what each other likes in the post.”
“We’ve been playing together for a while so we know where we’re going to be,” Rafferty added. “I think we do a great job in high-low and just finding each other up and down the court.”
Hinsdale Central was sluggish at the start of the game, holding just a 13-11 lead in the first quarter. But the Red Devils exploded for 23 points in the second quarter and held a 36-21 halftime edge. Proviso West never challenged in the second half as Hinsdale Central sprinted the the finish with 21 points in the fourth. “I didn’t think we were going strong enough around the basket [in the first quarter] and it was just attention to detail,” Latorre said. “We just had to take care of the little things and I thought we did a much better job in the second quarter.”
Kawanis Bowers led Proviso West with eight points, while Jordan Bradshaw added 10 for Hinsdale Central.