Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York
It's hard to get good help, unless you play on Conant's boys basketball team.
"If a guy gets beat, we've got a guy there ready to help and another guy ready to help the help," Conant's Tom Sotos said. "Our defense is our bread and butter."
With only 3:49 left to play on Friday, Wheaton Warrenville South had only managed to put 25 points on the board in a semifinal game of York's Jack Tosh Holiday Classic.
The culprit wasn't missed open shots, or poor free-throw shooting. The culprit was Conant.
"That's the way we've played all year," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "We know that (defense) is our strength, and we have to have that aspect of our game to be successful."
The Cougars' 45-37 win over the Tigers advanced Conant to today's title game against St. Ignatius for the chance to defend last year's title. Conant has won the tournament three of the last five years.
Sotos led Conant (10-3) with 14 points, Jeff Keegan scored 10 and Chris Hoffman had 7 points to go with 7 rebounds, while WW South (8-4) got a night's worth of hustle from Derek Babb, who had 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Sam Carlson also chipped in 9 points for Tigers coach Mike Healy, but an 18-18 tie at halftime preceded a third quarter in which Conant earned a 16-5 edge in scoring to take control of the contest.
"We just seem to go through scoring lapses. It was the third quarter tonight and the second quarter yesterday," Healy said. "We've got to take better advantage of every possession."
Sotos buried a pair of 3-pointers in the third, while Keegan, Hoffman and Tony Rizzo all put points on the board. Conant seemed poised to break the game open early in the fourth quarter, but the Tigers hung tough.
"I thought we had an opportunity to push (the lead) out even further, but credit their defense," McCormack said. "They're a very solid defensive team."
"I think we're playing well defensively, and I can't fault our effort," Healy said. "Conant knocked down some shots, and they executed real well."
Healy applauded the effort he got from Babb all night, while Conant will look to continue clamping down on teams and getting scoring when they need it.
"If we play defense like that every night and knock a few more shots down, it's going to be really tough to beat us," Sotos said.
-- Gary Larsen
Palatine 69, Glenbard South 55: Palatine limped into the holiday break with a 3-7 record, but the Pirates have suddenly broken out offensively.
Palatine matched its season high in points, which it set in Thursday win over Eisenhower, in cruising to a 69-55 victory over Glenbard South at York's 34th annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic in Elmhurst.
Palatine (5-8) advances to today's consolation championship at 2:30 p.m. against Downers Grove South.
So have the Pirates finally turned the corner?
"I hope so," said Palatine coach Ed Molitor, one win away from reaching 500 career victories. "We've been talking for the last three weeks about playing with some energy and playing together … we have to keep that going."
The Pirates shot 59 percent for the game, and went 7 of 8 on 3-pointers.
"We've just been trying to turn the corner and get our season going after our slow start," added junior forward Matt Rossi, who came off the bench to ignite the Pirates' offense with a game-high 19 points, including four 3-pointers.
Rossi scored the final 10 points in Palatine's first-quarter-ending 12-0 run to stake the Pirates to 16-4 advantage.
The inside trio of Josh Rustman, Ron Lampen and Monroe Brooks powered the Pirates in the paint.
"They came out and set the tone," said Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke, whose team trailed 29-17 at halftime. "When you have an inside-outside attack going there is not much you can do."
Defensively, the Pirates also did the job, as senior guard Gerald Hutton held the Raiders' Louis Erkins scoreless the first three quarters. Erkins was the tournament's leading scorer entering the game.
Glenbard South (6-6), after trailing by 20 points early in the third quarter, narrowed the deficit to 13 points in the final quarter behind the scoring of Erkins and Andy Manson.
But Matt Wieber converted 7 of 8 free throws in the final quarter to lead Palatine to its second straight victory.
-- Michael Eaken