Schaumburg finds a way to bounce back
MILWAUKEE -- It's hard to blame the Schaumburg boys basketball team for looking a little sluggish during the Saxons' 61-59 win over Glendale (Wis.) Nicolet at the Terry Porter Classic on Saturday afternoon.
Just a day earlier Schaumburg was edged 56-52 by rival Hoffman Estates, and Saturday's snowy bus ride to Milwaukee South Division High School took 2½ hours.
"We had a tough conference game last night," said Schaumburg coach Bob Williams. "And (when) you end up losing it's kind of tough to come back from that. And we had (a long) bus ride.
"We had lots of reasons but that doesn't hold any weight. Once you step on the floor you've got to play. I think we finally figured that out in the fourth quarter. We got some emotion going (and we) played a lot better."
The Saxons (4-2) escaped their trip north with a win, thanks to the late-game heroics of junior guard Cully Payne. The DePaul recruit calmly buried a 14-foot jumper in the lane with 30 seconds left to tie the score at 59-59.
Nicolet turned over the ball on its next possession with 9.3 seconds left. Payne then took the inbound pass, ran the length of the floor, and was fouled on a layup attempt with 2.1 seconds left.
He drained both free throws and Nicolet failed to get another shot off before the final horn sounded.
"I was going to win it or lose it for us," said Payne. "(The pressure of making the free throws) didn't bother me."
The Knights (1-2) trailed 28-26 at halftime, but put together a 12-3 run at the end of the third quarter. The outburst culminated in a runner in the lane by Torrance Smith that gave Nicolet a 44-38 lead.
Schaumburg chipped away at the lead in the fourth quarter. A 3-point play on an acrobatic layup by junior guard Perrish Bell, who finished with 14 points, pulled the Saxons within 52-51 with 3:44 left.
A free throw by Brandon Bolger, who also scored 14 points, with 1:47 left tied the game at 57-57. Nicolet held a 59-57 edge after a pair of free throws by Smith with 57.8 remaining.
"(We want to) get the heck out of Wisconsin before they take the win back," said Williams. "It was like we had a monkey on our back from last night.
"They were kind of down. And in the fourth quarter that lifted. I think we learned something about our team enthusiasm, so I'm excited about that."
Waubonsie Valley 59, Naperville Central 47: In a game in which the referees' whistles seemed to be going nonstop, it was hard for either Naperville Central or visiting Waubonsie Valley to really get on track in Saturday night's nonconference boys basketball game.
To make matters even worse for the Redhawks (4-2), Warriors senior guard Justin Peaster and his teammates did a great job of defending Naperville Central's Drew Crawford, who didn't connect on his first field goal until the fourth quarter and finished with just 2 shots from the floor to go with a 10-of-11 night from the foul line to score 14 points.
Couple Waubonsie's big night on defense with 24 free throws made, and the result was a 59-47 win for the Warriors, now 6-1 on the year after a pair of wins this weekend.
"We won ugly, but a win's a win," Waubonsie Valley coach Steve Weemer said. "We're an uptempo team, a running team. We play off high energy and we weren't able to do that."
Despite being called for 25 fouls, the Warriors still were able to put a solid effort on the defensive end and take advantage of Josh Daniels outside shooting and Kevin VandenBerg's free-throw shooting to score enough points to knock off a Redhawks team that entered the week 4-0 but lost back-to-back games this weekend.
"At practice we worked on guarding and guarding hard," Peaster said. "We tried not to give him open looks and we stayed in his grill. He got a little tired and asked to come out, so I guess I did my job."
With Daniels knocking down the first of his four 3-pointers on the night, the Warriors took a quick 7-1 lead, led 9-7 after one quarter and 22-20 at the half. But a 20-point outburst in the third quarter enabled the Warriors to go on top 42-33. Daniels, who led all scorers with 19 points, sank two long-range shots in the quarter.
With VandenBerg making 8 of 10 foul shots in the fourth quarter, Waubonsie was able to hold off the Redhawks, who only had Crawford score in double figures. Harrison Daniels did score 9 points and came away with 4 steals and Matt Derwin hit on a pair of 3-pointers, but it was not enough for the hosts.
"Their quickness was a problem," Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer said, "and we did not take care of the basketball tonight. But I thought the kids fought hard and we battled. We learned a lot this weekend. But we're gonna be in a dogfight every night."
Kyle Obendorf led the Warriors with 7 rebounds and added 11 points, while Jelani Johnson scored all 9 of his points in the second half to help the visitors to victory.
-- Stan Goff
St. Charles East 75, Naperville North 72: Saturday's boys basketball game between Naperville North and St. Charles East felt more like a 3-point contest than a nonconference contest.
The two teams combined for 16 treys, so it was only fitting the game was won on a 3-pointer.
Ryan Suits, a senior with the Saints, hit "the biggest three of his career" when he nailed the game-winning 3-pointer in St. Charles East's 75-72 win against the Huskies in St. Charles.
"We knew it was going to come down to one possession, and Ryan Suits stepped up," St. Charles East coach Brian Clodi said. "Bottom line is our kids competed, and it was a great high school game, high scoring with both teams finding their way on the offensive end. We are extremely proud of the kids."
With the game tied at 72 and 13.3 seconds remaining, Suits hit his third 3-pointer of the game at the top of the key.
"I was open…I was feeling good and I hit a couple shots earlier," said Suits, who finished with 13 points and also grabbed the game-ending rebound. "Fortunately, it went in."
Naperville North (2-4) had the chance to tie the game when Austin Weiss was fouled behind the 3-point line with 2.1 seconds left in the game.
Weiss missed the free throws, but he finished with a career-high 26 points, including 9 in the final quarter.
"Austin is a nice player, and I'm sure he really wants the ball at crunch time," Naperville North coach Mark Lindo said. "He's going to be a good player."
Weiss and Suits weren't the only ones to post career nights. St. Charles East star Collin Pryor matched his own high after he finished with 31 points and 11 rebounds.
He also was a threat behind the 3-point line, as he made a trio of treys, including one that pushed the Saints (2-4) ahead 69-66 with 1:58 remaining in the game.
"He took over the game," Clodi said of Pryor.
The Huskies never led again after that. They were able to tie the game at 72 after a basket from Weiss in the paint with 39.3 seconds left in the game.
In addition to Weiss, Naperville North was led by Jake Hasse's 13 points.
The Huskies are 2-4 and have lost all of their games by a total of 13 points.
"We just haven't been able to close the deal," Lindo said. "But I feel really good about the way the guys are competing."
-- Christine Bolin
Streamwood 72, Glenbard North 61: Streamwood earned a nonconference win against Glenbard North 72-61. Streamwood was led by Tem Esikiel,who had a game-igh of 36 points. He had three 3-pointers and was 15-for-18 at the line. T.J Enno also contributed to the Sabres win with 12 points, while Kyle holder had 8.
Wheaton North 82, Bartlett 61: The Hawks (2-3) fell to Wheaton North 82-61. Kamil Janton led the way for Bartlett with 16 points. Mike Banks contributed 10 points. Both Luke Labedski and Mike Selvaggi added 8 points apiece.
St. Edward 60, Luther South 41: Brett Manning led the way for St. Edward (4-0) in its 60-41 win over Luther South with 18 points. Steve Martin helped the cause with 16 points, while Josh Dix had 15.
Conant 62, Prospect 54: Every time Conant appeared to have checkmate Prospect jumped back into their Mid-Suburban League boys basketball crossover Saturday night.
But after squandering three 12-point leads, the Cougars finally gained control of the scoreboard with a 62-54 victory at Perry Gymnasium in Hoffman Estates.
"It wasn't our smartest game," Conant senior swingman Tommy Sotos said after matching his season- and career-high with 21 points. "Coach (Tom McCormack) always says he wants to play chess, but we played a little bit of checkers tonight."
Sotos scored the first 11 points of a 13-0 run that gave Conant (4-1) a 19-7 lead 6:59 before halftime. He hit 2 of his four 3-pointers, a baseline drive for a 3-point play and a runner in a span of 1:44 to erase the last lead for Prospect (4-2) as it had a 4-game winning streak snapped.
Sotos' fourth 3 capped another personal 8-point burst in 3:12 to put the Cougars up 41-29.
"The guys I play summer ball with make fun of me … because I've always been able to score in bunches," said Sotos, who was 7-for-13 from the field. "I've wanted to start to score more consistently, too. But a lot of times you hit a few shots and they take you away."
But the Cougars had other options in Tony Rizzo (11 points), Jeff Keegan (9 points, 6 assists) and Chris Hoffman (8 points, 7 rebounds). Tom Mahr had a pair of rebound baskets to help thwart rallies.
"We need contributions from those people," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "Our level of execution and understanding is starting to get there."
Keegan and Cameron Leavitt helped shackle Prospect scoring leader Jeff Heiden to 8 of his 17-point average on 2-for-15 shooting from the field and 1-for-10 on 3s.
But Prospect's 6-foot-6 power towers of Kevin Reed (20 points, 6 rebounds) and Alex Toth (16 points, 11 rebounds) wouldn't let Conant break away from a 48-36 lead with 7:05 left.
Five straight points by Reed cut the deficit to 54-50 with 2:15 left. And Reed's layup with 31 seconds left off Heiden's feed cut it to 59-54.
Conant finally finished it off on Keegan's free throw and feed to Rizzo for a layup.
"It hurts because I thought we had opportunities, believed we had a shot and belonged in the game," said Prospect coach John Camardella after his team missed 12 layups. "I didn't think we executed down the stretch the way we needed."
-- Marty Maciaszek