No shame in end of Saxons' playoff run

Endings such as these are always painful.

But there was nothing shameful about how Schaumburg arrived at this emotion-filled point Friday night at Barrington.

The seventh-seeded Saxons had high hopes of springing a third straight postseason upset.

The only problem was Zion-Benton seemed to have players jumping on springs everywhere a full house of more than 3,000 looked.

And the Zee-Bees lived up to their top seed by winning the Barrington Class 4A boys basketball sectional championship 54-41.

"They're a good team," said Schaumburg senior Dan Slowik. "They get after the ball and play with a lot of hustle. I don't take anything away from them."

Holding Zion to its third-lowest scoring game of the season and getting 20 points from junior Cully Payne would figure to be perfect parts of a formula for another successful Saxons' upset.

But the Saxons couldn't get ignited at 3-for-20 behind the 3-point line and had some of their hopes extinguished with Zion scoring off 5 offensive rebounds.

"Every time we really needed a stop they got an offensive rebound," said Schaumburg coach Bob Williams. "It's disheartening when that happens."

Yet the Saxons seemed once again to be following a familiar postseason script. They fell behind by 9 points in the second quarter when senior reserve Sean Everitt hit a pair of 3s to get them within 5 points at halftime.

"I felt I had to help the team out," Everitt said. "We weren't doing anything offensively and I wanted to give us some energy out there."

Payne continued his trend of strong second halves with DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright on hand. When he hit a pull-up 3 off a steal, the Saxons were within 30-27 and their fans were rocking with 3½ minutes left in the third as Zion was forced to call a timeout.

"We were really working together as a team and felt confident," Everitt said.

"We were hitting our screens, we were boxing out and getting open looks at the basket," Slowik said. "I thought we could do it."

But Schaumburg couldn't capitalize on chances to tie it or get closer. Wainwright and Illinois assistant Jay Price watched Zion sophomore stud Lenzelle Smith nail a long 3 with a defender in his grill and put back a miss to up the lead to 38-29.

"It didn't work out this time," Slowik said.

But it didn't diminish the time the Saxons had after they dropped to 13-9.

A 6-game winning streak that included a pair at Conant -- the second over the No. 2 seed for a regional title. A dramatic win over Hoffman Estates and an upset of No. 3 Highland Park.

"We proved everybody wrong because nobody thought we do well at 13-9," Everitt said.

"No one thought we could do it except for us," Slowik said.

"People who thought that don't understand the character of this team and the strength of their character," Williams said. "They represented themselves and the school and community with total and complete class."

There's no shame in that kind of ending.

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Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com

Schaumburg's Dan Slowik battles Zion-Benton's Lenzelle Smith under the basket Friday night at Barrington.