Carmel can't keep up with St. Patrick in 61-42 loss

The Carmel Catholic boys basketball team is a work in progress these days.

The Corsairs had their game in sync for about a quarter, but St. Patrick returned the favor and ran away with a 61-42 victory in an East Suburban Catholic Conference game in Mundelein on Friday night.

Still, the Corsairs managed to find some good points in their game but know they need to fix a few other things.

"I thought we played a real good first half," said Corsairs coach John Ryan. "You've got to take care of the basketball. We just had too many turnovers and we didn't rebound. You just can't win."

The Corsairs (8-12, 2-5) stayed right with the Shamrocks (12-6, 6-2), matching shot for shot and trailing 12-10 through the first eight minutes.

The Corsairs' Jonathan Huisel (shared a team-high 12 points) hit a short jumper with 6:58 left in the second quarter that tied the game 14-14.

But the Shamrocks forced the issue by putting pressure on the Corsairs' guards and causing some turnovers. St. Patrick put together a 13-6 run and led 27-20 at the break.

"St. Patrick picked up the pressure and we had a hard time passing the ball," Ryan said. "St. Patrick was real quick and strong. It's a good lesson for our kids, you've got to learn how to play against quickness. We've got to learn how to slow down and not speed up."

The Shamrocks continued to rachet up their intensity in the third quarter and extended the lead to double digits at 48-33.

Julian Reed led St. Patrick with a game-high 13 points, while Kortney Darby added 12 points and Jacob Williams chipped in 11.

"We just got a little more pressure out of our defense," said Shamrocks coach Mike Bailey. "We didn't change much. We just moved our pressure points up a little bit. We were able to get on a run there. We wanted to speed things up a bit."

The Corsairs' Douglas Meyer hit four 3-pointers and finished with 12 points off the bench to match Huisel for the team high.