Schaumburg 62, Hoffman 56

Schaumburg will need some help to make a serious run at the Mid-Suburban West boys basketball title.

But first the Saxons needed to help themselves Friday night to prevent their worst MSL division start in 10 years.

And even though 25-point scorer Cully Payne couldn't assist much the last eight minutes because of cramps, the Saxons held on for a 62-56 road win before more than 2,500 that knocked Hoffman out of the MSL West lead.

"We're not where we want to be right now at .500 in the conference," said Schaumburg senior Mick Trimarco, who came off the bench to provide a big defensive spark with Perrish Bell. "Coming into the season I don't think anyone ever saw that coming."

But Payne came up with a 14-point stretch in 10 minutes that started late in the first half as the Saxons (11-6, 3-3) got back into the West mix by avenging a 56-52 loss to Hoffman (11-5, 4-2).

Hoffman junior Luke Mead scoring half of his career-high 28 points in the final 7:05 wasn't enough to keep Conant (12-4, 4-1) from getting in position to take sole possession of the West lead by beating Barrington tonight.

"All week we've been talking about finishing quarters," Payne said as the Saxons avoided their worst division start since they were 1-5 in the South in 1997-98, "and we were able to finish the game, which is huge for us."

Payne provided a big finish to the first half after Kevin Lessner tied it for Hoffman on a layup off`1 of Mead's 4 assists with four seconds left.

After a lane violation on a free throw, Payne raced down and hit a pullup 3-pointer on the right wing over a defender at the buzzer to put the Saxons up 30-27.

They took the momentum into the second half by hitting their first 7 shots en route to a 45-32 lead. Payne had all 3 of his assists and Dan Slowik had a pair with Blake Mueller (10 points) getting 3 layups.

"They broke us down and got wide-open layups," Mead said after shooting 8-for-20 from the field and 5-for-13 on 3-pointers. "We weren't communicating well. The first stretch of the third quarter really killed us."

Payne capped it with a floor-length drive after blocking and rebounding Mead's baseline drive. After the Saxons missed their only shot in 13 second-half attempts, Payne's pair of pullup jumpers made it 49-36.

"I thought the real difference was the way we came out at halftime," said Saxons coach Bob Williams.

Schaumburg had 5 turnovers and 2 missed free throws the first three minutes of the fourth quarter but only gave up 2 points.

"We got stops and just couldn't convert," said Hawks coach Bill Wandro. "It was frustrating for all of us."

Payne's cramps hit with about six minutes left and he watched Hoffman get within 54-51 at 1:03.

But Payne and Trimarco combined on 6-for-6 free throws the final 1:08 and Slowik's baseball pass to Payne for a layup put the Saxons up 60-54 with 26.6 seconds left.

"That's the best time to play, too," Payne said after hitting 9-of-11 shots. "It was hard to watch but I was able to get in a little and help us."