Gilhooly sparks Cougars past Harlan

As well as Harlan played in the first half Wednesday night, Conant one-upped the Falcons in the second half of St. Viator's boys basketball Thanksgiving tournament.

Trailing 39-28 with 7:09 left in the third quarter the Cougars outscored Harlan 18-2 the rest of the quarter to lead 46-41 and went on to post a 65-48 win at Cahill Gym.

"Give Harlan a lot of credit," Conant coach Tom McCormack said. "They played well together in the first half and caused us difficulties. In the second half we unshackled our players and told them to drive to the basket.

"We had to penetrate. Our defense became more aggressive and that was the difference. We could not let them play volleyball on the backboards."

Conant (2-0) will play Viator (2-0) for the tourney title at 5 p.m. Friday.

Tim Gilhooly (22 points) put Conant up for good at 42-41 with 3-pointer with 2:02 left in the third. Gilhooly scored 14 of his points in the second half and finished with four 3s.

"In the second half," said Gilhooly, "we wanted to come out with intensity on both ends of the floor. Our goal was to force some turnovers and limit them to 1 shot. Because we played better defense we were able to get the momenteum on our side. We had to shut down (Toure) Atwater and limit his touches."

While Atwater led Harlan (0-2) with 23 points, he did not score in the final 16:51.

The surge Conant had in the third carried into a 19-7 fourth-quarter advantage.

Tim Lomas added 14 points and Cameron Leavitt and Taylor Peterson had 10 points each. Tony Rizzo had 5 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists.

"Tony has the knack of finding open teammates," said Gilhooly.