Paul sparks late Warren rally

As Warren's boys basketball team went to the bench after the third quarter Saturday night, confidence was emanating from the players.

Despite the fact the Blue Devils were trailing by 7 points and had just watched Conant's Tom Sotos drain a turnaround 3-pointer at the buzzer, Warren, led by standout junior Brandon Paul, was ready to fight back.

"We just kept playing," Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. "Early in the year we would have let something like (Sotos' shot) bother us. These guys hung tough."

Anchored by a dazzling fourth-quarter performance from Paul, the Blue Devils, who had trailed for nearly the game's entirety, battled back to knock off Conant 53-49 in nonconference action Saturday night in Hoffman Estates.

"This was a really big win," said Paul, who had 26 points and 4 rebounds. "We came in knowing this was going to be a hard game, but we just wanted to come out with the win."

Just a day earlier, Conant (18-5) had clinched its second consecutive Mid-Suburban West title with a 51-42 victory over Hoffman Estates. While one might think perhaps the Cougars were still reveling in their conference title, coach Tom McCormack dismissed this notion.

"We tried to put (the division title) out of our mind, McCormack said after his team's 8-game winning streak ended. "Warren is a pretty good team. They made some shots and we didn't."

While Warren (13-9) was the first to score, it would be the Cougars who controlled the tempo of the game early. By limiting the Devils' fast break opportunities and distributing the ball extremely well, Conant went into the break with a 32-25 lead.

The Cougars built their first-half lead behind the solid shooting performances from their backcourt combo of junior Tony Rizzo (12 points) and Sotos (10 points, 3 rebounds).

Paul did not back down from the fourth-quarter challenge.

The 6-foot-3 junior, who has already verbally committed to play for Bruce Weber's Illini in 2010, knocked down three clutch 3-pointers to bring his team back into contention.

"Brandon Paul hit some great shots," Ramsey said. "He was outstanding tonight the way he hit those 3s in the fourth."

With 2:10 left in the game, and trailing by a basket, senior forward Jeff Kemp's lay-up off a miss tied it at 47-47.

Thirty seconds later, junior guard David Duncan knocked down a pair of free throws to give Warren the lead with 1:30 left in regulation and they would never look back.

Fittingly, it would be none other than Paul who blocked a last-ditch effort by Conant's Sotos, to wrap up the victory.

"I knew I had to do something to help our team," Paul said with a smile. "This really builds our confidence and helps us know that we can beat good teams."