York tops Maine West for third place at Palatine

Never let it be said that third-place games have no meaning.

Especially during the Thanksgiving holiday, where most boys basketball teams start their seasons.

First of all, in a four-game pool play format, capturing third place means that someone starts their season by winning three of their first four games on the young campaign.

Secondly, the third-place trophy that goes to the winner is a nice bonus.

As a result of a 19-3 run over the first seven minutes of the second quarter, it was York bringing the third-place trophy back to Elmhurst with a 67-51 decision over Maine West on Saturday afternoon in final-round action at the Ed Molitor Thanksgiving Tournament at Palatine.

"This is going to give us some great confidence to take into our (West Suburban Silver) conference opener at Glenbard West (on Friday)," York coach Vince Doran said. "I felt that overall we made some good decisions with the basketball. I thought all of our kids did a nice job out there today."

Those decisions Doran spoke of came to fruition in the decisive second-quarter surge that began after a Julian Dones 3 that put the Warriors within 20-18 just 24 ticks in.

Following a first hoop from 6-foot-5 senior center Jordan Gray at the 7:13 mark, the Dukes got a Nick Kosich layup and Nick Trapani 3 before Gray's second bucket off a rebound capped a 9-0 run, making it 29-18 York with 4:50 left in the half.

After a Darrington Bates hook shot brought Maine West within 29-20, Gray took over, scoring 8 of the Dukes' next 10 points, starting with back-to-back inside baskets from Mike Pedote feeds.

Another hoop inside plus a pair of free throws were sandwiched around a pair of Angelo Martucci free throws to expand the York edge to 39-21 at the 1:07 mark.

"Jordan (7 rebounds) did a great job on the glass," Doran said. " He gave us a strong presence as well as great consistency inside."

"I just went out and played," said Gray of his game-high 16-point performance. "It was really my teammates that helped me out."

Maine West (2-2) had a spark at the start of the final period. Trailing 56-35 just 36 seconds in, the Warriors went on a 13-2 tear led by 6-3 senior forward Randy Kent, who scored 8 of his team-high 11 points to pull Maine West within 58-48 with 5:15 to play. Any hope of a comeback were dashed by Kosich (15 points), whose layup at 1:38 left topped off a 7-for-8 performance at the foul line and put York up 65-49.

"We decided at the start of the fourth to scrap everything we tried to do and go toward a more uptempo style on defense," siad Maine West coach Tom Prokopij. "It forced them (York) into making some bad decisions with the ball."

Despite the loss, Prokopij takes a glass half-full approach to his team's performance this week.

"We definitely wanted to grab at least 2 wins here this week and that's what we were able to do," he said. "We're still struggling at times, but overall this was a great learning experience for our team to take into our conference (CSL South) opener at Maine East (on Saturday)."