Blazers fall short in 59-56 loss to Elmwood Park
Whether he was forcing turnovers, finding teammates for easy baskets, hitting big shots or diving headlong toward the stands, Addison Trail's Vince Beachem did everything humanly possible to get his squad a win Wednesday.
He and the Blazers came up three points shy.
In a boys basketball game against visiting Elmwood Park, the Blazers lost 59-56 to a Tigers team that jumped out to a 24-9 lead and hung on in the face of a scrappy comeback effort by Addison Trail.
"Our press slowed them down a little, got us some steals and we got back into the game," Beachem said. "It was a tough loss, but we came back as a team."
Elmwood Park (5-1) had a team of hot shooters on the floor to start the game, hitting 4 first-quarter 3-pointers and playing hard in building a 16-9 lead after eight minutes of play.
"We're trying to build an identity in our program that we're tough, hard-nosed and we get after people," said Blazers coach Brendan Lyons. "Give (Elmwood Park) credit. They took the style that we wanted to play and threw it right back in our face in the first quarter."
Addison Trail (0-5) fell behind 24-9, as the Blazers struggled to find open looks in their motion offense but began cutting into the Tigers' lead by finding defensive energy. Consecutive steals led to quick baskets by Vince Noworyta and Ian Horvath that cut the deficit to 24-15 in the second quarter.
Six seconds before halftime, Beachem took it coast-to-coast on an inbounds play, got fouled and hit the free throw to end a 13-4 Blazers run to halftime, with the Tigers holding a 28-22 lead.
"Vince is everything I could ask for in a senior," Lyons said. "He is our spark plug, our energy guy. He gets us going."
The Tigers increased their lead back to 13 points in the third quarter before 3-pointers by Beachem and Matt Davies made it 42-35 after three quarters of play.
Davies hit another 3, Alex Dimaris hit a jump shot in the lane and Beachem hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 49-49 in the fourth quarter, but the Blazers struggled to score and the Tigers hit every big free throw down the stretch.
Elmwood Park went 15 of 18 from the free-throw line in the final period.
"We haven't been that good on the season from the line," said Tigers coach Dennis Keizer. "But we stepped up tonight."
Beachem finished with 20 points, 4 steals and 5 assists, while Noworyta finished with 13 points and 6 rebounds, and Davies hit three 3-point shots in scoring 10 points.