Cougars get title shot

There will be nights for Conant such as Monday when every shot seems to drop.

What the Cougars boys basketball team wants every night is no drop-off on the defensive end.

Combine the two and it added up to a 70-38 semifinal romp over Oswego and a third straight championship game appearance for the Cougars in the 35th annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York High School in Elmhurst.

"Defense is our backbone," said Conant senior Tim Gilhooly after scoring a game-high 22 points and shooting 5-for-10 on 3-pointers.

"We try to show that defense is our main component," said 6-foot-3 Conant senior David Trinco, who limited high-scoring Oswego 6-4 junior Andrew Ziemnik to 9 points on 4-for-14 shooting. "We're going to score, but defense is going to be our main attribute."

Conant (9-2) has allowed 36.6 points in its three tournament wins and will play for its fifth York title at 7:15 p.m. today.

The Cougars hope to keep their even-number year magic at York going (1996, 2002, 2004, 2006) and avenge a 55-36 title loss last year to St. Ignatius (10-2), which beat Riverside-Brookfield 59-50 in the other semifinal.

"It's exciting to have another chance at them," Trinco said.

Oswego didn't have much of a chance after the first quarter as Conant allowed only 24 points the last 24 minutes.

Gilhooly, Trinco Cameron Leavitt (17 points on 6-for-8 shooting, 4 assists), Tony Rizzo, Taylor Peterson, Eric Madeck and Garrett Gatz led the way as the Panthers shot just 34 percent (15-for-44) and committed 18 turnovers.

"I thought our defense generated a lot of it again," Conant coach Tom McCormack said of his team's 25 points off miscues. "A lot of (our shots) were pretty open and uncontested.

"Defensively we really got after it as the game wore on and we really clamped down a little bit."

And the Cougars came out red-hot as Gilhooly, Leavitt, Madeck and Gatz combined to go 7-for-11 behind the 3-point line en route to a 28-16 lead.

They led 39-20 at halftime on 14-for-22 shooting from the field.

"We ran our offense very well," said Gilhooly, who gave credit to the screens from Madeck, Peterson and Trinco. "We were doing a great job of finding the open man and knocking them down tonight."

Oswego did make an 8-2 run to start the second half and had the ball when Trinco dived on the floor for a loose ball steal. That led to consecutive 3s by Gilhooly and a breakout by Madeck that put Conant up 49-28.

"That sparked us and changed the momentum right there," Gilhooly said of Trinco's hustle play. "We wanted to get the momentum and run with it and didn't want to give it back to them."

Conant shot 54.2 percent from the field (26-for-48) and 9-for-16 on 3s. Next up is a St. Ignatius team which has lost twice to highly-regarded Seton and beaten Marshall.

"They'll be a load on offense and they'll get after it defensively," McCormack said.

"Our main goal is we wanted to get back there," Gilhooly said. "We'll have to get after them and not have the same situation that happened last year."

Downers S. 45, Palatine 34: For a half Downers Grove South was following a familiar pattern in its Jack Tosh Holiday Classic consolation bracket game with Palatine.

The Mustangs didn't play well the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas. After a day off, they were losing by 4 points early in the second half Monday.

But Downers South (7-4) allowed only 8 points in the final 14:40 and won 45-34 to advance to today's 5 p.m. consolation championship game against Lyons Township.

"Without a doubt it was the only thing we talked about at halftime," said Downers South coach Paul Runyon of his defense that allowed only 4-for-20 shooting after intermission. "We played great defense in the second half and that's been our trademark."

Especially when Palatine (2-10) trailed just 35-31 with 5:17 left. A driving jumper by Julius Staisiunas (12 points, 11 rebounds) started an 8-0 run where Downers South's next three scores came off turnovers.

Bleeder Dervishi had 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting and Malcolm Herron had 10 points and 6 assists for Downers South. Nat Pearson had 10 points and Matt Rossi added 8 for Palatine, which shot 8-for-16 in the first half but finished with 21 turnovers and will play Wheaton Warrenville South for 11th place at 3:30 p.m.

"We kind of went brain-dead in the second half," said Palatine coach Eric Millstone. "The first half we played hard and executed our half-court sets, but the second half has been our story this year.

"We let a couple of runs take place to let the games get away from us."