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Growing Carmel team can't keep pace with Joliet Catholic

No worries, Carmel fans.

The varsity boys basketball team is going to make believers out of many before season's end.

The Corsairs are loaded with talent but they're still pretty young. It's just a matter of getting everyone on the same page and fitting all of the pieces in the right places.

For now though, there will be some expected growing pains and that was evident Friday night in Mundelein when Carmel fell to Joliet Catholic 88-71 in East Suburban Catholic Conference action.

"We're obviously young and still learning and we need to be patient," said first-year coach Zack Ryan, whose team slipped to 2-5 overall and 0-2 in conference here in the season's early going.

"We get passive and start struggling. A lot of that has to do with the fact we're a little inexperienced and we're a smaller team. What we have to do is be more consistent and we need to communicate for a full 48 minutes."

Ryan's troops looked anything but inexperienced after a hot start when they applied a full-court press right out of the gates. That helped lead to a quick 6-0 lead in the first two minutes of the game after 3-pointers by junior guards Shareif Bailey and Christopher Duff. From there, Carmel held as much as a 7-point lead at 34-27 with 1:25 left before intermission. The Corsairs were draining 3s, forcing turnovers, and penetrating.

Everything was in tact, right?

Well, a little twist was thrown into the mix.

Joliet Catholic ended that last 1:25 on 7-2 run to cut the lead to just 36-34.

"We really moved the ball well and attacked the zone in the first half," said Duff, who drained four treys to finish with a game and season-high 30 points. "But teams make a run on us and we get down. We need to play with that full effort and heart for a whole game."

Then, with two minutes gone by in the third stanza, Joliet Catholic (6-6, 1-1) broke a 41-41 deadlock by going on a 10-0 spree that resulted in a 51-41 lead that it would never relinquish.

In that deciding this quarter, the Hilltopper's shot 10-for-17 from the field as it outscored Carmel 27-17.

"I think we played a little too cocky and we started not communicating well after they made a run on us," said junior forward Zavier Barnes, who chipped in with 6 points. "Tonight we learned we have to prepare more and we need to keep playing up-tempo."

The visitors went ahead by as many as 17 points on four different occasions in the final period, including the final score.

Bailey and running mate sophomore guard Brian Julien netted 10 points each in the losing effort. Senior forwards Thomas McGrail and Michael Pabst popped in eight and seven points, respectively.

According to Ryan, the best thing if anything about the loss is that Carmel won't have too long to dwell on it.

The Corsairs are right back to the hardwood this morning when they take on Grant at 9 a.m. in the first round of the Jacobs Holiday Tournament.

"That's the best thing we can do is get back out there and play right away," said Ryan. "We don't have a lull period where we have to think about a loss for too long. We have a chance to rebound right away."

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