St. Edward claims Westminster tourney crown
Final game, the crowd roaring, Grossman and Benson taking on Manning. There was a strange sense of deja vu for football fans who attended Friday night's finale of the Westminster Christian Thanksgiving tournament.
There was one more parallel to the Bears' Super Bowl appearance in February: Manning came out on top. Brett Manning and St. Edward defeated Westminster Christian, 64-58, to claim the inaugural tournament title.
Manning threw 3 scoring passes (assists), and scored 13 points himself, but the big gun for the Green Wave was Steve Martin, who nailed 5 three-pointers and finished with 27 points. Martin and Josh Dix (15 points) led a 3-point assault on the host Warriors. St. Edward made 11 from long range.
"I finally made some shots in this tournament," said Martin, who was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. "And Josh did real well, too."
"We can shoot the 3, but we can also miss the 3," said St. Edward coach Keith Chuipek. "We were fortunate tonight that we were knocking them down."
Center Joel Benson led Westminster with 21 points and 9 rebounds. Tyler Beachler scored 19 points. Guard Ted Grossman scored 4 points.
St. Edward (3-0) led by as many as 11 points in the final period. But Westminster scored 6 straight to make it 55-51 with about 5 minutes to go. After a rare Martin 3-point miss, the Warriors had a chance to get closer. But they missed 2 shots, and Manning made a basket at the other end. After a Westminster turnover, Martin made a free throw, and the Warriors never got closer than 5 the rest of the way.
"Competing in and winning this tournament was one of our (preseason) goals," said Chuipek. "That was the first step to get up another notch."
Cory Hodge added 8 points for Westminster, which led 17-14 before a 10-0 run put St. Edward ahead for good.
"Both teams played hard enough to win, and they were a little better tonight," said Westminster coach Bruce Firchau. "I thought Steve Martin probably had the game of his life. If he continues to play like that, great things are going to happen for St. Ed's. They have a lot of firepower out there."
Martin scored 16 points in the first half as St. Edward shot a blistering 57 percent from the field, including 57 percent from 3-point range. Dix had 12 points, all on bombs.
Westminster wasn't bad, either, shooting 55 percent in the first half and 51 percent for the game. Led by Benson, the Warriors out-rebounded St. Edward, 21-19.
Both teams took care of the ball, with only 16 combined turnovers for the game.
Boys basketball
Downers South 65, Larkin 36: While playing in a tough season-opening tournament at Downers Grove South, the Larkin boys basketball team was able to show promise in different areas of its game at different times.
But what the Royals have yet to do is string together four solid quarters and that has a lot to do with why they're still searching for a win after Saturday night's 65-36 setback to Downers Grove South (2-1). The host Mustangs forced Larkin into 8 first-quarter turnovers while jumping ahead 21-6 after one quarter during final round action at DGS.
Larkin (0-3) played the Mustangs pretty much even in the second and third quarters, but the slow start left them with a 44-26 hole heading in the final quarter of play. It was a similar scene the previous night when the Royals dug a big first-half hole against T.F. North before putting together a much more respectable second half.
"I was a little disappointed tonight that we got off to such a bad start," Larkin coach Larry Hight said. "Against these teams it's hard to sustain it for four quarters. We're still looking for the right combinations. We're still looking for chemistry out there."
Forward Cam Kinley had a strong game for the Royals with 10 points, 9 rebounds and a blocked shot, but it was not enough on a night when Larkin made just 12 of 47 shots and turned the ball over 22 times.
"It was a pretty tough tourney to start the season with," said Kinley, a 6-foot-3 senior. "We've just got to get some chemistry going. This (tourney) shows us what we'll have to face all year."
On Friday the Royals went up against a massive T.F. North squad, while the Mustangs came out with a quick, five-guard attack that was tough on defense and passed the ball well on the offensive end.
Downers South, which lost to tourney champion Hinsdale Central on Friday, made 16 of 31 shots in the first half while taking an 18-point lead at the intermission. Billy Dillon scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half and Andrius Simulis knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to tally 8 of his 14 points through two quarters.
"We start five guards so we're going to pass the ball well," Mustangs coach Paul Runyon said. "But the defense in the first quarter was just outstanding. We got a lot of steals and easy scores in transition."
For Larkin, Jeff Saurbaugh added 10 points and a steal, while Deonte McFadden had 9 points and 4 rebounds.
-- Stan Goff
South Shore 67, Streamwood 66: Streamwood coach Tim Jones knew he should have started off the game with a man-to-man defense.
Chicago South Shore's Dante Oakley confirmed Jones' thought after he scored 16 points during the Tars' 29-point first period. Jones promptly changed his game plan in the second period, the Sabres' allowed just 38 points in the rest of the game, but could never pull ahead dropping the 67-66 finale of the Wheaton Academy Thanksgiving Tournament.
"We went back to playing man like we should have," Jones said. "We played zone last night against Collins and I though maybe we'd match up."
South Shore opened the game shooting 11 of 18 with Oakley going 5 of 6. After the Sabres (1-3) went to their man defense and focused more on Oakley South Shore (1-3) shot just 35.2 percent (12 of 34) in the rest of the game with Oakley going 3 of 8.
"We kept getting the shooters the ball," said Oakley, who led all scorers with 22. "They weren't playing me man. Then they double teamed me."
Streamwood had more than its fair share of chances to pull ahead late in the game. T.J. Enno (20 points, 16 rebounds) pulled Streamwood within 66-64 after splitting a pair of free throws with 34 seconds left. Djvon Simpson made it a 3-point game after splitting a pair of free throws at the other end of the floor, before Enno made an offensive putback with time expiring to make it a 1-point loss.
The Sabres finished the fourth quarter going 3 of 8 from the free-throw line and went 7 of 18 in the game.
"We came together, we just have to learn how to make free throws and break the press," Enno said.
Enno finished the second half with 11 rebounds, 6 offensive to go along with his 11 of his team-high 20 points. Enno tied the game up at 54 on an offensive putback at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Brian Domokos added a pair of offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter, drew fouls but went 0 of 4 from the free-throw line.
"They did an outstanding job," Jones said. "They need to use their size and ability."
Enno's basket marked the first time Streamwood had been tied since the tipoff, but the momentum was short lived. The Sabres were whistled for 5 fouls over the next 2 minutes and Tars point guard Robert Dortch (10 points, 6 steals, 5 assists) scored 5 straight points during the run putting his team up 62-59.
Tem Esikiel (13 points) had a chance to give Streamwood the lead, but missed a pair of 3-pointers in the final minute.
All 5 starters finished in double digits for South Shore with Ricky Hope (10 points, 4 blocks), Aaron Bassett (11 points, 5 assists, 3 steals) and Christian Greer (11 points) all tallying double digits.
-- Matt Stacionis
Cary-Grove 57, Guilford 37: Cary-Grove boys basketball coach Ralph Schueltze was hoping Rockford Guilford would cool off in the second half and his team would play better defense and rebound better.
Schueltze had all his wishes granted.
The Trojans outscored the Vikings 29-12 in the final 16 minutes in posting a 57-37 victory in the final game of the Hoops for Healing Tournament held at Woodstock High School Saturday afternoon.
"Guilford made some very tough shots in the first half, but we let them have some easy shots," said the Cary-Grove coach. "We executed our stuff much better offensively in the second half and our defense was much better."
The Vikings, despite shooting 10-of-15 from the floor for 67 percent, trailed the Trojans 28-25 at intermission. Josh Beck scored 14 points for Guilford.
The play of Cary-Grove's Paul Tometich was the main reason the Trojans held a narrow 3-point lead after 16 minutes. Tometich scored 14 points, including three 3-pointers. Tometich was 6-of-8 from the floor and 3-of-5 from 3-point range.
The Trojans didn't waste any time taking control of the game in the second half.
Five points from Tometich including a 3 along with a pair of layups from Dan Fallon propelled the Trojans to a 9-0 run and a 37-25 lead with 4:12 left in the third quarter.
Holding the Vikes scoreless for nearly 4 minutes. Guilford's first and only basket of the quarter came on a layup by Dontay Hanson. Guilford, 1-of-10 from the field in the quarter, managed only 2 more points in the quarter on 2 free throws by Beck.
Cary-Grove outscored Guilford 15-4 in the quarter and led 43-29 entering the fourth.
Tometich led the Trojans with 18 points.
"I felt good after warm-ups," said Tometich. My shot was there. Everybody knows their role on this team and this is a very unselfish team."
The Trojans, who played without Mark Tometich (sprained foot), also got 11 points and 6 assists from Ben Jacquier. Beck scored 20 for Guilford.
-- Dave Hess
CL South 54, Rockford Jefferson 39: A great effort in the fourth quarter was just what Crystal Lake South needed.
In their final game of the Rockford Boylan boys basketball Thanksgiving tournament, the Gators held Rockford Jefferson to just 2 points in the fourth for the 54-39 win.
"(The second half) was the best half we've played in four games," said South coach Dan DeBruycker, whose team finished the week 2-2.
Not only did the Gators' defense stifle the J-Hawks late in the game, their offense made good use of the free throw line. The Gators sunk 23 in 30 trips to the line.
"We talk about how important it is to get to the free throw line," DeBruycker said. "If we're going to get there 30 times and get 23 in, that's going to give us a great chance to win. That's what it did."
With 22 points, Eric Wilde was 8-of-9 free throw shooting in addition to four 3-pointers. His 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer put the Gators up 40-37 and they never looked back.
"Another one of goals is to (get and convert) free throws," Wilde said. "If we get to the free throw line we'll always do better."
Steven Rogers (7 points) was 5 of 5 on free throws while teammate Wesley Evans (11) was 5 of 8.
Chris Reuter also scored 7 for the Gators.
For as good as its final game was, Crystal Lake South was still recovering from its loss to Boylan earlier that day. The Titans handed it to the Gators 51-22.
"The score pretty much shows exactly how it was," DeBruycker said. "We missed shots early. We actually played pretty good defense in the first half. By holding Boylan to 51 points I guess we're doing something well because they're averaging 70-80 points a game. They're a very good team."
Adam Olszewski led the Gators in that game with 6 while Wilde was held to 5.
"After that last game (against Boylan) we got absolutely killed. It's embarrassing," Wilde said. "We definitely came together defensively (against Jefferson). We held them to 2 in the fourth quarter. One of our goals is to hold teams to under 40."
Overall, the trip to Rockford was a good tune up for the Gators.
"We look at the weekend that we improved over those four games," DeBruycker said. "That's all we have to do --- keep getting better."
-- Bill Swick
Harlem 76, Hampshire 71: The Whip-Purs (1-2) battled for the consolation title of the Sycamore tournament but fell short to Machesney Park Harlem. T. J. Burzak led Hampshire with 21 points and Justin Bieber scored 20.
Prairie Ridge 55, Carmel 33: The Wolves (1-3) grabbed their first victory of the season as they defeated Carmel in the Mundelein Tournament. Senior Mike Ungari collected 18 points for Prairie Ridge while Bryan McGinn added 17.
Wrestling
Bartlett at WW South: Bartlett finished 10th, getting fourths from Brian Wozniak at 119 pounds and Jason Blendowski at 125, plus a fifth from undersized heavyweight Max Yep.
"He's only 225, and we keep telling him to bump that weight up," said Bartlett coach Gary Cotie. "But he's doing a good job."
West Aurora won its third straight team title.
At Barrington: Cary-Grove senior Paul Rands gave the Fox Valley Conference its only championship trophy of the 17th Annual Moore-Prettyman Memorial Tournament at Barrington when the senior overwhelmed Grant's Dave Monroy 7-1 to stake his claim to a first-place medal at 215.
"Paul has come a long way in one year," said Cary-Grove coach Dan Cysewski. "He is so much quicker and stronger, and he's hitting so many more solid moves so far. He knows there's still a lot of work ahead of him, but he has a terrific year ahead of him."
Prairie Ridge junior Eddie Smith worked his way through the backdraw to gather a third-place finish at 215, while teammate Brendan Barrett nearly did the same before dropping a 3-2 match to Rangel at 160 pounds.
St. Rita won the team championship.