Second-quarter blitz pushes Viator past Carmel
What a second quarter by St. Viator.
Just when Thursday night's East Suburban Catholic Conference boys basketball game looked like it would be a defensive-minded, down-to-the-wire slugfest, the Lions erupted for 22 points in the second quarter en route to a 57-47 win over visiting Carmel.
Sophomore forward Richard McLoughlin sparked the Viator rally, scoring all 8 of his points and grabbing 5 of his 7 rebounds in the quarter.
Viator improved to 2-3 (1-1 ESCC) going into Saturday's game against Hersey.
"This was big for us," McLoughlin said. "We're looking to get back to .500."
"We like to get him the ball in the post," Viator coach Joe Majkowski said of the 6-foot-3 McLoughlin. "He's pretty good in there."
Michael Landuyt scored 15 points for the Lions, while Eric Huber added 14.
Carmel's 6-6 Jack Baucus scored a game-high 17 points, including 12 in the first half.
"He's a good player," said Majkowski. "We let him get the ball way too much (in the first half.) We said at halftime that absolutely we cannot let him get the ball in the second half, and Matt (O'Malley) shut him down, with help from the rest of the team."
"We didn't do a good enough job of trying to get the ball inside to him," Carmel coach Jon Baffico said. "He got in foul trouble in the third quarter, and that made it more difficult. But you have to give credit to the St. Viator defense."
An 18-6 run in the second quarter gave the Lions a 33-21 halftime lead, and they opened it to 45-27 midway through the third when O'Malley found Huber with a sweet pass under the basket.
Carmel (2-6, 0-2) got two late baskets by junior Ryan Kloss (5 points) to pull closer but it was too little too late.
"We just played a good offensive game," said Viator sophomore Alan Aboona, who scored 8 points. "We kept our spacing and found the open man."
David Venegoni scored 13 points for Carmel while Tim Sachs added 8.
"I thought our defensive effort was too sporadic," said Baffico. "We didn't give the kind of consistent effort you need to win in this conference.
"They had that run in the second quarter, and we weren't able to get back in the game."