Barrington hangs on; Wheeling, Hoffman win
Say what you want about its 0-7 record, but Elk Grove is going to make teams battle this season.
Trailing Barrington by as many as 16 in the second half Saturday, the Grens countered each Broncos' run with the defensive intensity and offensive execution that any undefeated team would be proud to display.
But it was not to be for Elk Grove and first-year coach Anthony Furman. A 17-4 first-quarter hole was too much for the visiting Grens to dig themselves out of as they fell to the Broncos 57-52 in a Mid-Suburban League crossover contest.
"We don't have as much talent (as last season), but we're going to get that win very, very soon," said Elk Grove senior Billy Hubly, after sinking four 3-pointers and scoring 15 of his game-high 21 in the fourth quarter.
If the 6-foot-3 guard can repeat the shooting performance he did against the Broncos, he may be on to something.
After senior Wade Lernihan made a layup to give the Broncos their largest lead at 45-29, Hubly knocked down his first 3 shots of the fourth quarter then made a beautiful steal, tiptoed the sideline and sailed in with a one-handed breakaway slam to get Elk Grove within 48-40.
"(Hubly) was hitting everything," said Barrington senior Charlie Douglas, who scored 12 to share team scoring honors with junior Mack Darrow. "(Elk Grove) never quit."
Not even when it was trailing by 11 with less than a minute to play.
Hubly drilled a 3 from the top of the key then swished another from the right wing with 23.7 seconds left after Barrington (4-4) committed 1 of its 6 fourth-quarter turnovers.
"We did a lot of things (coach Marty Dello) told us not to do, so we basically tried to find every way to lose that game," Darrow said. "But I think it says something that we were able to bear down at the end."
As poorly as the 23 turnovers and stretches of sloppy play looked, the numbers weren't all that bad for the Broncos.
They led 29-21 at halftime after shooting 14-of -28 from the floor. They outscored Elk Grove 38-20 in the paint. And they held the Grens to 36 percent (20-of-55) shooting.
"When we play with intensity and play fundamental basketball … they're pretty tough," Dello said of his squad. "But when they get a little overconfident, then bad habits come.
"I'm happier with our Schaumburg loss (76-58 on Thursday) than I am with this one. We're going to be going back to the drawing board with a lot of film breakdown and a lot of practice time."
But the Grens feel like they're heading in the right direction after solid contributions from Matt Martinski (14 points), junior J.J. Lastovich (6 points), Joe Baxter (5 points) and the rest brought them that much closer to win No. 1.
-- Matt Beardmore
Wheeling 59, Gbk. S. 52 (OT): Wheeling exploded for 18 points in overtime -- 11 by senior captain Chris McClellan -- and took a step toward the .500 mark with a 59-52 nonconference victory over visiting Glenbrook South.
McClellan, who led the Wildcats (3-4) with 23 points, hit a 3-pointer and made all 8 of his free throws in the overtime. Teammate James Kurtz scored 5 of his 16 points in the extra four minutes.
Wheeling needed every point it could muster in regulation, thanks to the inside play of South's 6-9 junior center Jack Cooley, who led all scorers with 26 points before fouling out with 1:10 remaining in the overtime.
"He's a big, strong kid," said McClellan, who is now 51-for-52 on free throws this season. "We tried to front him and play behind him. He still overpowered us and got easy baskets."
Wheeling led 24-14 at halftime, despite committing 11 turnovers in the first half, and the stretched its lead to 31-19 on a basket by Mike Barton with 4:32 left in the third. The Titans (2-7) outscored Wheeling 15-2, taking their only lead of the game at 34-33, when Cooley made the first free throw of a 1-and-1 with 4:20 left in regulation.
"We might get out of control at times," McClellan said. "But when we listen to coach, we're right on our game."
Cooley's 2 free throws with 1:09 left in regulation tied the game at 41-41, and that's the way the quarter ended, with neither team getting a good shot at the basket in the final minute.
While South took advantage of Wheeling's foul trouble in the fourth quarter (7-of-12 from the line), the Wildcats turned the tables and never trailed in overtime, hitting 11-of-12.
"This is a real confidence booster for us, especially with our starting center (Alex Chery, 10 points) and power forward (Mike Zimmer) out on fouls," said Wheeling coach Lou Wool. "Tuesday, we have a chance to break even and get back to .500 (against St. Charles North)."
-- Larry Weindruch
Hoffman 54, S. Elgin 38: Hoffman Estates was looking for some balance.
After a 4-0 start, the Hawks had dropped 2 straight and looked to make it three as South Elgin built a 16-8 lead in the first quarter.
Then it clicked.
Led by a impressive defensive effort and 10-for-14 shooting in the second half, the Hawks took a 54-38 nonconference road victory.
"We needed to get back mentally," said Hoffman point guard Luke Mead. "We found a way to be level-headed."
The Storm (4-3) wasted little time taking it to the Hawks (5-2). South Elgin opened the game shooting 7-of-11 from the floor, with 6 field goals coming inside the paint.
The Storm looked to cruise right along as the second quarter opened, but after a series where 5 offensive rebounds could only produce 6 missed shots, it never looked in the paint again. The Hawks' defense did the rest.
Hoffman held South Elgin to 17.6 percent (6-of-34) from the floor and 22 points the rest of the way. The Storm finished the second quarter 1-of-11 from the floor and scored just 3 points.
The loss snapped South Elgin's 3-game winning streak.
Hoffman went on a 28-11 run in the second and third quarters led by Mead (7 points) and center Kevin Lessner, who scored 6 points in the third quarter. Mead (5 steals, 4 assists) led all players with 14 points and Lessner finished with 10.
Chris Hall added 4 points off the bench during the Hawks' 12-3 second quarter, but it was the defense that created the offense.
South Elgin turned the ball over 7 times in the second quarter and did not score for 3:45. Adam Hodge (12 points) scored 5 points in the first quarter, but did not make another field goal until there was 4:38 left to play.
"Our defense won the game tonight," Hawks' coach Bill Wandro said. "They like to run (Hodge) off a lot of screens. Our guys did a good job staying with them."
-- Matt Stacionis
St. Joseph 44, Conant 39: With 3:23 to play, a 3-pointer by Tommy Sotos put Conant ahead as it tried to beat perennial power St. Joseph for the second straight year.
But the Cougars (5-2) wouldn't score again as their 5-game winning streak ended 44-39 in Westchester.
"A game like this stings. It really hurts," Sotos said after scoring a team-high 16 points and hitting three 3-pointers. "We need to remember when we're in close games like this, we need to remember how this felt."
For Gene Pingatore, it was a winning feeling he's experienced 799 times as head coach at St. Joseph (6-1).
Pingatore can join Dick Van Scyoc (826 wins at Armington, Washington and Peoria Manual) and Arthur Trout (810 wins at Centralia) as the only boys coaches in Illinois to win 800 games when St. Joseph hosts Carmel on Friday.
A rebound basket by Diamond Taylor (18 points) put St. Joseph ahead to stay at 41-39 with 1:32 to play. Lewis Green's 10 rebounds led a 31-19 advantage.
Tom Mahr had 9 rebounds for Conant, which led 19-16 at halftime and used a 9-3 run to take its last lead.
"We didn't make many mistakes," said Conant coach Tom McCormack, "but the ones we made they capitalized on."
-- Joe Esse
Jacobs 57, Fremd 37: It happened in a blink of an eye with 7:28 remaining in the third quarter.
With a flick of the wrist, Jacobs senior John Moran swatted the ball away, recovered it and scored on a drive down the right side to become the Golden Eagles' career scoring leader with 1,551 points, passing 2004 graduate Eric Verneisel.
It took Jacobs a bit longer to put away feisty Fremd.
Jacobs (6-1) entered the final quarter clinging to a 6-point lead, but John Moran and junior Conrad Krutwig each scored 8 points in the final eight minutes of a 57-37 nonconference win in Palatine.
"It's pretty cool, there have been some good players to come through here," said Moran. "It's nice to get it on a steal because everybody has been talking about points lately, it's not all about points."
Moran finished with a game-high 19 points converting 8 of 14 field goals, including two 3-pointers. The Northern Iowa recruit also contributed 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals.
With Jacobs only leading 35-29 at the end of three quarter, Moran put all his skills on display in the pivotal fourth quarter
The 6-foot-1 senior opened the final eight minutes with a reverse lay-in, and then assisted on 2 easy baskets for Krutwig (16 points, 5 rebounds). Moran then drained a 3-pointer, hit a jumper and converted 1 of 2 free throws to increase the Eagles advantage to 55-35 with 1:21 remaining.
It was more like walk, walk, and walk for the first three quarters as Fremd's match-up zone stalled an Eagle attack that was averaging 68.3 points a game.
"In the half-court we did a real nice job defensively," said Fremd's coach Bob Widlowski whose team trailed by 13 points early in the third but used an 11-2 run to narrow the deficit to 4 points.
Senior Jim Mundt came off the bench to score 5 of his 7 points during the run and junior Danny Bruno (team high 9 points) added a nifty layup. Sophomore Chris Klimek (7 points, 6 rebounds) and senior Michael Hoffman (5 rebounds) helped Fremd (2-5) to a 24-18 rebounding edge after three quarters.
-- Michael Eaken
Lake Forest 59, Palatine 54: Too many Palatine turnovers, too many Lake Forest open looks, and way too many missed shots by the Pirates.
That was the story of the first three quarters for Palatine on Saturday night, but the home team almost erased the memory of all that with a dramatic fourth-quarter rally.
Palatine battled back from 14 down and took a 1-point lead with a minute left, but couldn't sustain it as visiting Lake Forest closed the contest on a 5-point run for a 59-54 nonconference win.
"I don't know how we got into such a hole," said Palatine senior guard John Castellano, who keyed the late effort with 8 points in the final eight minutes. "We got really intense with each other in the fourth quarter. We knew we could come back."
The taller Pirates boasted a daunting front line including 6-foot-6 center Monroe Brooks (10 points) and 6-9 Josh Rustman (5 points), but that didn't stop the Scouts from driving to the basket.
Time and again Lake Forest drove the lane for easy baskets or kicked the ball out to sharpshooter Matt Vogrich (game-high 25 points) or Kevin Gaughan (7 points) for open 3s.
"I don't think we played we a sense of urgency in the first three quarters," said Palatine coach Ed Molitor. "That got us into a hole, but we buckled down in the fourth quarter."
Palatine (3-4) still trailed by 13 with six minutes left.
But behind pressure defense and the inspired play of Castellano (13 points), Matt Rossi (13 points, 7 rebounds) and Gerald Hutton (8 points), the Pirates took a 55-54 lead when Castellano drained a 3 from the corner.
But a layup by Vogrich put Lake Forest back in the front and then guard Kevin Berardini made a clutch steal as the Pirates tried to go back in front.
"We got the lead," said Molitor, "but we couldn't get the key stop on the next possession.
"I thought the kids who were on the floor on the fourth quarter gave a great effort defensively, and that got us going offensively. We've just got to learn to give the same effort we give in the fourth quarter in the first three quarters."
-- Bill Esbrook