Conant finds Davis for first-round win at York

Of the 14 baskets Ryan Davis pumped home Tuesday in Conant's 56-45 win over McHenry, most of them came on alley-oop passes or otherwise clean entry passes from Ben Schols, Rajat Mittal, Joe Arriaga or Jonathan Kolev.

And Davis appreciated the generosity of his teammates as he scored 35 of his team's points in first-round play at the 32-team Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York.

"I'm playing with a team that looks for me," and pretty much looks out for him too, said the Vermont-bound senior.

"I've never coached a player like him," said first-year Conant coach Jim Maley, whose 7-4 club has won five of six now and will play a second-round winner's bracket game at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday against St. Patrick (a 46-45 winner against Riverside-Brookfield). "He's a special player."

And one who has trimmed down, sped up, runs the floor, rebounds and blocks shots like a demon - and then steps outside and calmly knocks down a 3-pointer, even with McHenry (6-4) throwing 6-foot-4 Patrick Breisch and 6-5 Jacob Evans at him all game.

Of course, that opened things up for Davis' teammates - such as Schols, who had 11 points and 6 assists, and Mittal, who picked his spots for his two buckets, helped feed Davis and joined Schols, Arriaga, Kolev and Anthony Wachal to key a defensive effort that limited McHenry to 6 third-quarter points as Conant broke the game open, outscoring the Warriors 19-6 in the frame.

"That is how we normally play," Maley said of the defensive devastation and rebounding his Cougars unleashed.

It looked like this: Mittal scored inside; then Davis had an "and-one" putback and followed with a long outlet pass to Schols for a layin. Davis subsequently scored in transition, again on a clean fastbreak, and had another point on 1 of 2 free throws. After a 3 from Gio Calabrese (15 points) broke the run, Davis started another one on an alley-oop from Schols and slamming one home in transition.

"It's always a highlight reel," playing with Davis, said Schols. "It's fun."

Earlier, fun had to take a backseat to focus for Conant, which was knotted at 26-26 at the half and trailed most of the first two quarters on accurate 3-point shooting from Maki Mohr, Calabrese and Gavin Markgraff.

"We kind of came out pretty sluggish," said Maley.

That is easily fixed, though.

"Just going hard as long as we can," said Davis.

"We picked up our intensity," in the second half, said Schols.

In the meantime, they're liking the look of their hot shooting in this bitter cold and the play of their leader, Davis.

"They do a good job of getting him the ball," said Maley.

"It's almost amazing," said Schols.