Conant tops Elk Grove

A momentum-shifting third quarter gave the Conant boys basketball team the dominant upper hand in a 64-36 win against Mid-Suburban League crossover rival Elk Grove on Saturday night.

Conant junior guard Garrett Gatz hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to take an 8-point lead at halftime that set the stage for a 12-0 run to open the third quarter. The host Grenadiers (1-5) turned the ball over 4 times within the first four minutes of play to help open the floodgates.

"I wish I knew what happened there," Conant coach Tom McCormack said with a smile. "We didn't make any adjustments and we just tried to play hard and smart. We got some stops and some inside scores and we got a stranglehold on the possession time."

Senior guard Tony Rizzo (10 points) got things going for Conant (4-1) in the second half with a three-point play, and senior Tim Gilhooly (16 points) buried a 3-pointer at the 3:46 mark to cap the run.

"They were playing really physical inside in the first half, and we had a little trouble handling that," Gilhooly said. "We just wanted to come out with a lot of intensity and get them down on defense. We know all those guys on the other team, so that encourages us to do a little better."

The Grenadiers were outscored 20-3 in the pivotal third quarter, washing away a hard-fought first half.

Junior forward Donny Duschinsky scored 15 points and grabbed 7 rebounds to lead the Grens in both categories.

"We felt with the exception of that last 3 that they hit before half that we put ourselves in a good position," Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman said. "We knew at half that a poor start could explode into something big, and we did not respond to it with any type of possession offensively or defensively to defuse it."