HINSDALE For much of the past four years, Hinsdale Centrals boys basketball program hasnt known life without Matt Rafferty.<\/p>\n
Now Grant Hutcherson and his Red Devil teammates are learning how to play without Rafferty, a standout senior forward who broke his right hand in a Jan. 23 game against York and could miss most of the rest of the season. <\/p>\n
Weve been trying to keep our heads up for sure, Hutcherson said. Its definitely a blow seeing Raff go. Obviously hes our star, but were still confident in what we can do as a team and we know we can still get some wins without him, so weve practiced hard and focused on some different roles because we had to switch around some peoples roles. <\/p>\n
Hutchersons role is one that has changed. The Red Devils sixth man at the start of the season, he saw more action in the post during a 51-47 loss against Oak Park-River Forest on Jan. 30 since George Kiernan missed the game to attend his grandmothers wake. <\/p>\n
The Red Devils lost 61-49 against Glenbard West on Saturday to fall to 1-2 without Rafferty. They are 17-4 overall and 6-2 in the West Suburban Silver heading into Fridays 6 p.m. game at Proviso West. <\/p>\n
Two-time defending WSS champs, the Red Devils now sit one game behind Lyons Township for the Silver lead, but their conference standing is not altering their overall goals. <\/p>\n
Our goal is always just to play as well as we can and play at our full potential, so we never talk about number of wins or going undefeated or anything like that, Hinsdale Central head coach Nick Latorre said. We just say, Lets go out and play, improve and play as well as were capable of playing. <\/p>\n
Against OPRF, Central saw Hutcherson (12 points), Thomas Ives (13 points) and Jordan Bradshaw (11 points) lead a balanced scoring effort. Hutcherson scored nine points in the first half, Bradshaw put up seven in the third quarter and Ives tallied eight in the final frame. Bradshaw and David Northey hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Red Devils a 27-26 third-quarter lead, but the Huskies pulled away down the stretch. <\/p>\n
No matter who is on the floor, the Red Devils wont lack for work ethic. <\/p>\n
This week were going to bust our butts even harder, learn our roles even better and try to get more comfortable with where were at and try to get more wins, Hutcherson said. Were a family and were gonna keep going hard and try to do something special this season. <\/p>\n
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Red Devils adjusting to life without Rafferty<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HINSDALE For much of the past four years, Hinsdale Centrals boys basketball program hasnt known life without Matt Rafferty. Now Grant Hutcherson and his Red Devil teammates are learning how to play without Rafferty, a standout senior forward who broke his right hand in a Jan. 23 game against York and could miss most of the rest of the season Continue reading