North Chicago pulls away from Grant
North Chicago boys basketball coach Gerald Coleman has a goal for his team this season.
His team has other ideas.
"The team is playing to win games in the Prairie Division, while I want them to play to get prepared for the state playoffs," Coleman said. "I want our team to block out the conference games and get ready for the tournament. If they come out focused and play like they are capable of playing, the conference wins will take care of themselves."
North Chicago destroyed visiting Grant 94-60 in a North Suburban Conference Prairie Division game Friday night.
The Warhawks (6-1) remained undefeated at 3-0 in the division.
"Our goal is to hold the opponents under 40 points and we have been successful with that so far," Coleman said. "But Grant scored way over that. Our defensive pressure wasn't there the entire game."
North Chicago cruised to a 25-10 first-quarter lead. But Grant (6-3, 2-2) rallied, outscoring North Chicago 21-13 in the second quarter and trailed 38-31 at halftime.
The Warhawks broke the game open by scoring 11 of the first 13 points in the third quarter.
Warhawks senior guard Patrick Terrell led all scorers with 23 points.
"During halftime we talked about on how we need to get our focus back," Terrell said. "We didn't walk in the locker room with our heads down. We went out there ready to play in the second half."
North Chicago's Kentrall Wilson scored 20 points and dished out 7 assists, while Dentri Henning added 19 points, including three 3-pointers. DeShawn Chambliss added 14 points.
Mike Shields led the Bulldogs with 21 points, Curtis Oler scored 14 points, and Marc Grischeau and Gilbert Sheehan finished with 10 points each.
"You can't dig holes and start the game like we did tonight," Bulldogs coach Phil Ralston said. "Our kids deserve a lot of credit in that they came back within six points and played an outstanding second quarter. But playing one good quarter is never going to win any games. You have to play for a full 32 minutes."
St. Joseph 56, Carmel 40: Jack Baucus scored 16 points for the Corsairs in their East Suburban Catholic Conference road loss.
Jordan Sivertsen added 9 for Carmel (2-8, 0-3).
St. Joseph coach Gene Pingatore became the third boys basketball coach in Illinois to win 800 games in the East Suburban Catholic Conference game in Westchester. Pingatore joins Dick Van Scyoc (826 wins at Armington, downstate Washington, Peoria Manual) and Arthur Trout (810 at Centralia).
Buffalo Grove 57, Prospect 34: There was more to Buffalo Grove's 57-34 Mid-Suburban East boys basketball victory over Prospect than meets the eye.
Sure, there was a 17-0 third-quarter run that sealed the deal, but there was a lot of defense being played at the other end of Jean Walker Field House, too.
The job the smaller Bison (7-1, 3-0) did against the Knights' two big men, Alex Toth and Kevin Reed, a pair of 6-foot-6 veterans, was as important as Mike Ricciardi's game-high 19 points, Paul Timko's 11 or Brian DeSimone's 9 assists and 8 points.
Ricciardi and DeSimone, both 6-2, helped hold Toth to a team-high 9 points and Reed to 5 points.
"The entire week, coach told us we had to keep their big guys from getting the ball, and if we did, we'd win," Ricciardi said.
"We knew if they got it inside, we'd have a hard time," BG coach Ryan O'Connor said.
"The two of them (Toth and Reed) have been excellent in games," said Prospect coach John Camardella. "DeSimone is a tough-nosed player. They put him on the post (defensively), and that limited the entries."
The second of 2 baskets by Toth at the 5:14 mark cut BG's lead to 29-25. Unfortunately for the Knights (4-4, 1-2) they wouldn't score again until there was 7:42 left and BG was safely ahead 46-25.
The Bison spread the ball around during their 17-0 run. Ricciardi and James Hurley each scored 4 points, Timko and Federico Iudica each nailed a 3-pointer, DeSimone scored 2, and Kevin Mulligan made a free throw.
"The kids came out fired up in the third quarter," O'Connor said. "They really believe in their conditioning.
"At the end of the first half, we were starting to gain momentum. The kids really looked forward to the second half."
Ricciardi scored 12 of his 19 in the first half, including the last 6 points of the half, when the Bison carved out a 27-19 lead at intermission.
-- Larry Weindruch