Trojans hold off Addison Trail

No way were the Trojans going to let fate strike them twice in a row.

After letting a 10-point fourth-quarter lead slip through its hands Monday night against Bogan, Downers Grove North knew it would be essential to capitalize on an 8-point halftime lead Wednesday night against Addison Trail.

The Blazers made things interesting, using a 13-2 third-quarter run to get themselves back into the game before Downers Grove North put its foot down, stopping the Blazers in the second half of the fourth quarter to pull out a 42-39 victory in Downers Grove.

Senior Ian Horvath's basket with 4:07 remaining in the game brought Addison Trail to within a single point of the Trojans, yet it would be the last field of the game for the visitors. Addison Trail could only muster a pair of Horvath free throws inside the final four minutes, and watched the Trojans pull away down the stretch.

"We felt like (Horvath) was their only threat, so we put our sophomore point guard Paul Hogan on him, and he really stepped up," Trojans senior Mark Perales said. "He denied him, got in him, really frustrated him, and we tried to really limit his touches."

"We had a heart-to-heart on Monday - and we said we had to stop any type of run that would happen late in the fourth," Downers Grove North coach Jim Thomas said. "Horvath's a good player, and we just tried to stay in his back pocket and frustrate him as much as we could."

Perales' free throws with 2:35 remaining in the game proved to be the difference for the Trojans (2-3). While the 6-foot-2 guard led Downers Grove North with just 8 points, the Trojans played a balanced style of basketball, as eight out of nine players who saw the court registered points.

With Addison Trail (2-2) focusing its defensive efforts on 6-6 forward Kameron Norton, the Trojans had to play balanced to win.

"We figured they were either going to double down or keep it tight inside the paint," Thomas said. "It was imperative that our guards stepped up, drove the ball hard and found extra passes to get guys assists."

This season's heightened expectations from Blazers coach Brendan Lyons left him feeling slightly discontent after the loss.

"It's disappointing, because our expectationcoming in is we didn't just want to be able to be in the game and put up a fight, we wanted to be in a position where we could win," he said. "It was nice to be in that position, but just a lot of turnovers, a lot of lapses in judgment and lack of awareness in certain key possessions that really just did us in the whole night."