Conant 61, Buffalo Grove 51

Bill Charvat was not feeling so hot before Wednesday night's 38th annual Mid-Suburban League boys basketball title game.

The Conant senior had a sore throat and headache but he started feeling better before facing visiting Buffalo Grove.

Scoring a career-high 13 points off the bench was the perfect medicine to a wonderful feeling of helping Conant to back-to-back MSL titles with a 61-51 win at Perry Gym in Hoffman Estates.

"Last year's team was phenomenal and we were considered nobodies," Charvat said. "We came out and proved ourselves to everybody."

Charvat, who averages 2 points a game, led four Cougars (19-6) in double figures as they became the seventh team in MSL history to win consecutive title games.

They had 16 assists in hitting 20 of their first 34 shots (58.8 percent) en route to a 50-32 lead that put them 6:55 from equaling the league's title-game mark of six crowns by Prospect.

"That's the way this team has always been," said Conant senior point guard Jeff Keegan, who had 11 points and 4 assists. "We've never had one dominant player like Geoff McCammon last year.

"It's a bunch of guys who step up and game-to-game you never know who it's going to be."

Junior Tony Rizzo had 12 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists and limited the damage by BG (18-8) senior Brian DeSimone (11 points on 4-for-15 shooting, 5 assists). Junior Tim Gilhooly came off the bench to score 11 points.

Tom Mahr (7 points), Chris Hoffman and David Trinco combined for 19 of Conant's 33-17 rebound advantage.

"It wasn't one guy who really led the team to victory," Charvat said, whose previous high was 7 points. "That's what we're all about."

That's why leading scorer Tommy Sotos wasn't feeling so bad after getting whacked and suffering a cut in the left eye early in the second half.

The senior scored only 3 points in limited action but was thrilled for Charvat, his teammate since age 5.

"To get a guy like that come off the bench," Sotos said, "and he steps up that big in a game of that magnitude."

BG also had four players in double figures as Paul Timko, Chris Timberg and James Hurley scored 10 points apiece. But its shot at its first title since 1981 was done in by 30.8 percent shooting (16-for-52) from the field.

"When we did (have chances to get back in the game) we didn't take care of our opportunities," DeSimone said. "We missed too many layups."

The Cougars made most of theirs to open a double-digit lead 2:55 before halftime. BG wasn't able to cut it to single digits until Hurley's 3 made it 58-49 with 48 seconds left.

"(Conant) played a very nice game and executed their stuff very well," said BG coach Ryan O'Connor. "We were in position to make some defensive plays and we didn't hustle or didn't slide a little bit here or there, and that's a big difference in a championship game."

Which had Keegan raising two fingers in triumph after the final buzzer sounded.

"I'm really, really happy for our guys," said Conant coach Tom McCormack after his fourth title victory. "For most of them to have been on the bench and watching most of last year …"

Made repeating very sweet.