Saxons cramp Boylan's style

ROCKFORD - Schaumburg faced an eerily similar scenario in Saturday night's championship game of the Rockford Boylan boys basketball Thanksgiving tournament.

The host Titans had 23 seconds to tie or hit a potential title-winning 3-pointer. The Saxons' marquee player, Alabama-bound all-tourney pick Cully Payne, could only watch after spending most of the fourth quarter sidelined with leg cramps.

But the ending would be different a year later. Boylan committed its 27th turnover on a travel with two seconds left under relentless man-to-man pressure and Schaumburg (4-0) won the title 51-48.

"It's an incredible feeling because they hadn't lost (their tournament) in 20 years," said Schaumburg senior Josh Spandiary, whose 11th point on a free throw set the final score with a second left.

"It was disappointing last year (overtime loss to Boylan) and I'm glad we came back this year," said Saxons' senior guard and all-tourney pick Perrish Bell after he knocked away Boylan's last-gasp floor-length inbound pass. "I was thinking about that the whole time.

"(Payne's leg cramps) was another motivation. The exact same thing happened last year and we had to step up and make something happen."

A missed 1-and-1 and turnover gave Boylan (3-1) a final shot. Bell, Spandiary, Chris Kelly, Justin Swiercz and Declan Geraghty dug in and made sure one wasn't even attempted.

"I was very pleased with our defensive effort down the stretch when the game was on the line," said Schaumburg coach Bob Williams of holding Boylan scoreless the last 3:28.

"We don't want to let anyone score against us," Spandiary said.

"When the end of the game came we weren't going to let them do anything," Bell said. "We shut them down and do what we do. We've been playing good defense all tournament."

Boylan committing 21 turnovers and Payne scoring 13 of his 16 points pushed Schaumburg to a 41-29 lead.

But Kieran Jansen (18 points) scored 8 in a 14-0 run to put the Titans up 43-41 with 5:16 left as Payne guzzled Gatorade and tried to work out his leg problems.

"It's been good and they haven't cramped up at all," said Payne, who scored 18 in a 61-51 afternoon win over Farragut. "It's something about Boylan."

With 3:32 left Payne returned and off an inbound pass from Swiercz nailed a 3 on the right wing for a 48-48 tie.

"Cully certainly makes the difference," said Boylan coach Steve Goers, whose 817 career wins are just nine behind Illinois all-time boys leader Dick Van Scyoc. "He's a great player and he's hard to defend.

"That darn inbound play really killed us when he tied it."

Boylan missed 2 free throws at 2:06 as it finished 8-for-17. Then off a sideline inbound, Swiercz found Bell for a wide-open drive down the right lane and a 50-48 lead at 1:43.

"I wasn't expecting to be that open," Bell said. "We executed the offense and that's what happens."

And bad things didn't happen for the Saxons when Payne limped off again for the final 1:33.

"It was great," Payne said of his teammates' finish. "Last year was kind of the same thing but it didn't turn out so well.

"Everyone wasn't going, 'Oh, Cully's not here, what are we going to do.'"

Barrington falls twice: Playing four games with two overtimes in a little more than 24 hours appeared to catch up to Barrington as it finished 0-4 at Boylan when Crystal Lake South pulled away in the second half for a 59-45 win.

Bryant Sullivan came off the bench for 11 points and 4 rebounds and his drive put the Broncos up 30-28 with 4:47 left in the third. Steven Rogers (26 points) and Eric Wilde (21 points) combined for a 13 unanswered points as CL South (2-2) took control with a 22-3 tear.

"We started off with (Rockford) Auburn and I thought we gave a great effort but we had to expend a lot of energy," said Barrington assistant coach Brett McAllister of a 55-50 overtime loss Saturday morning. "I thought our guys got a little tired. I still thought we played hard, especially in the first half."

Bryan Wegner (17 points), Mack Darrow (13 points) and Sullivan (10 points) led the Broncos against Auburn. Darrow had 10 points against CL South but the team shot just 31 percent from the field (17-for-54) and 20 percent inside the 3-point arc (10-for-40).