Defensive stand powers Conant

It was the middle of the first quarter, and things weren't looking good for Conant.

Host St. Viator had grabbed a 10-4 lead, was generating open look after look and knocking them down. Conant head coach Tom McCormack had seen enough. He called a timeout.

"He told us we needed to step up there," and play better defense said 6-foot-3 senior swingman Tom Sotos. "It took us a little while."

But it was worth waiting for. After trailing 18-10 when Viator closed the quarter with an 8-2 run, Conant limited the hosts to just 6-of-30 shooting from the floor and out-rebounded them 26-8 from there en route to a 61-45 win in the finale of the 31st annual St. Viator Thanksgiving Tournament.

The tournament title went Thornton, which, despite losing to Harlan earlier in the evening, had beaten both Viator and Conant in the round-robin format.

For Conant (2-1), the win over St. Viator (1-2) was gratifying in that, "each game, we played better and better," said Sotos, who led everyone with 21 points.

"We had to decide we were going to step up," said McCormack of tightening the defense. But he agreed with Sotos' assessment that, "We got better every game."

Plus, he said, Viator's style, physical and defensive-minded, is much like what the Cougars will see throughout their Mid-Suburban League schedule, starting next week.

Conant took command in the second period and never let up. Viator had no second-quarter field goals and only 3 points as Conant surged ahead on Sotos' and Tim Gilhooly's combined 4-for-4 shooting from beyond the arc and dominant play around the basket from 6-5 senior Chris Hoffman and 6-4 junior Tony Rizzo, who finished with 10 points.

Viator was still hanging around at 44-37 after three as sophomore forward Rich McLoughlin came alive. But Conant's relentless defensive pressure, the cool floor management by point man Jeff Keegan and what McCormack called solid contributions from at least eight to nine players proved to be a sound winning combination.

"They took advantage of mistakes we made," said Viator coach Joe Majkowski. "They forced us into mistakes," including playing a bit too up-tempo for his liking in their half-court offense, which caused too many low-percentage or well-defended looks.

After hitting 7-of-10 in period one, including 4-of-4 by Eric Huber (team-high 12 points) and 4 of their five 3-pointers for the game, things went south for the Lions.

"We know we can play better than we did tonight," said Majkowski, after splitting close games against Harlan and Thornton, respectively, before the loss to Conant.