Willowbrook feeling confident; WW South wins

Willowbrook's 6-foot-2 senior Joe Flood got the ball in the post, spun and softly buried a jump hook over Palatine's 6-6 Monroe Brooks on Wednesday.

It showed exactly the kind of self-assurance that Willowbrook is playing with right now.

"As the year goes on, we're all playing with a lot more confidence," Willowbrook's Kyler Market said. "We trust in each other that we'll make plays."

The Warriors made plays throughout a 62-45 win over Palatine in opening-round play of York's 34th annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic boys basketball tournament.

Market scored 19 points, Milton Colbert scored 15 and Flood netted 13 to lead Willowbrook (7-2) offensively, and Palatine (3-8) struggled to score for stretches of play in the face of Willowbrook's strong defensive pressure throughout.

Six-nine senior Josh Rustman is a strong offensive weapon, but his touches were limited as he led the Pirates with 9 points.

"He did a nice job of posting up and getting open, but the ball wasn't getting into him," said Palatine coach Ed Molitor.

"Earlier in the year we were starting to come around where our big guys and our perimeter guys were playing well together. Now, it's one or the other."

The Warriors led 18-15 after a quarter of play and 34-26 at halftime, with Market scoring 13 before the break. The junior played in the post and on the wing last year for coach Tim Lavorato, and he showed Wednesday that he can play the point guard spot, too.

"He is just continuing to develop his game," Lavorato said. "You just saw him get more confident as the game went on. He's a nice kid to have because you can just move him around."

The third quarter spelled doom for Palatine as Willowbrook went on a 12-1 offensive run until the final minute of the period and led 46-31 heading into the fourth.

Colbert, Market and Jamell Hunter stole passes that led to transition baskets for Willowbrook, which crashed the offensive glass throughout. The Warriors are also an aggressive offensive unit this year, and the Pirates struggled to slow them down.

"As a coach you run the same (offensive) stuff all the time," Lavorato said. "It just looks a lot different when you've got five guys that can play."

The Willowbrook lead never dipped below 12 points in the final quarter.

"I'm disappointed in our defense as much as anything," Molitor said. "We didn't screen out, we didn't do a good job of guarding the dribble or covering down.

"We cut the lead down to 12 and I thought maybe we would make a run at them, but then (Market) got in the paint and got it inside. He was the kid I thought hurt us the most."

Ron Lampen and Matt Rossi finished with 7 points apiece for the Pirates, and John Castellano scored 6.

-- Gary Larsen

WW South 44, Oswego 38:ŒWheaton Warrenville South guard Dan Phillip knows his role when he comes in off the bench.

The junior considers himself mostly a defensive player who doesn't try to shoot much. But in Wednesday's Jack Tosh Holiday Classic boys basketball tournament game at York against Oswego, Phillip made the most of his opportunity to score some clutch points for the Tigers.

He tallied all 6 of his points in the fourth quarter, including 2 free throws and a clutch bucket off a steal in the final 38.2 seconds of the game to help WW South capture a tense 44-38 victory over the Panthers in Elmhurst.

"I am not one of those big scorers," Phillip said. "It's a great opportunity. Put me in the fourth quarter and coach thinks I can get it done. It was great."

"He was a big sparkplug off the bench for us," said WW South coach Mike Healy. "Defensively, he was even bigger."

Healy was referring to the job that Phillip and a host of others did against standout Oswego guard Andrew Gallow, who came into the game averaging around 18 points. Gallow did score a game-high 18 points, but he had to work real hard for those points. The Tigers (7-3) threw numerous traps at him and made it difficult for the junior to catch the ball and square up and shoot.

Gallow did pour in 11 of his points in the first half as the Panthers (5-5) trailed 20-19 at halftime. In the third quarter, however, WW South pulled ahead by 6 points heading into the fourth quarter thanks to some timely outside shooting by Byron Given. The senior forward nailed a pair of 3-pointers in the final two minutes of the third quarter.

"He got loose on us," said Oswego coach Kevin Schnable. "We knew going in that he had 3-point shooting range ability. To their credit his teammates found him and kind of exposed one or two of our breakdowns on the defensive end. He caught hot and changed the momentum."

"We ran some hitters -- plays designed to get some open looks," said Given, who led the team with 13 points. "I was able to knock down some shots."

The Panthers pulled within 40-38 with 1:28 to play on an inside shot by Marcus Sanders. WW South kept its composure and did an excellent job spreading the floor and running its motion offense to click away the seconds. Oswego had to foul, and Phillip made a couple of free throws in the bonus situation.

On the next Panthers possession Tigers forward Stephen Mueller came up with perhaps the biggest defensive play of the game when he got in the passing lane for the steal. The senior then passed it quickly ahead to Phillip, who was streaking toward the basket. Phillip finished the shot for a 44-38 Tigers lead with 10 seconds remaining.

"I thought we made some great decisions down the stretch and made a couple of good plays defensively," Healy said.

Forward Derek Babb also chipped in 11 points for WW South.

-- Brian Pitts

Conant 56, Maine South 31:ŒScoring the last 6 points of the first half wasn't a quick fix for Conant.

Piling on the first 15 points of the second half helped the Cougars damage Maine South's hopes beyond repair Wednesday.

The 21-point run blasted open a 2-point game as Conant opened defense of its tournament title with a 56-31 victory over Maine South in York's 34th annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic boys basketball tournament in Elmhurst.

"We needed to get those points," said Conant junior Tony Rizzo. "We came out really bad and needed to put a run on."

One where Rizzo (15 points), Tommy Sotos (12 points), Bill Charvat, Chris Hoffman and Tom Mahr combined to hit 10 consecutive shots.

And Maine South (3-9) was forced to burn 4 timeouts in the first 4:04 after halftime.

Those just prolonged the inevitable as Conant (9-3) advanced to today's 6 p.m. quarterfinal against St. Charles East (5-6), which upset Downers Grove North 69-47.

"Maine South was pretty well prepared for us and it was a matter of our guys sticking with it," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "Our defense kind of got us going until we were able to get in synch on the offensive end."

Conant trailed 7-2 against the Hawks' myriad of defenses and led 20-18 when Charvat scored on a drive 47 seconds before halftime.

Cameron Leavitt (7 points) hit Sotos for a layup and Rizzo sliced through the entire defense for a buzzer-beating layup.

Four of Maine South's 20 turnovers after intermission kept Conant rolling. Hoffman scored three times in close, Mahr had a jump hook, Rizzo scored on a breakout and Sotos hit a 3 and scored on a drive for a 41-18 lead.

"We're a defensive-mentality team first if our offense isn't going," Rizzo said after making 6-of-7 shots. "We know we can rely on our defense."

Rizzo had 3 assists and Sotos had 2 assists as the Cougars were 14-for-22 from the field in the second half to finish at 53.3 percent (24-for-45).

"Our guys played very unselfishly and shared the ball and they've done that all year," McCormack said. "That's something that has to be a staple of the way we play."

-- Marty Maciaszek