One last helping of holiday hoops

As usual, there were plenty of holiday gifts for high school boys basketball fans in the last couple of weeks. So now it's time for our fifth annual look back at the holiday hoopla:

Best team

A split decision here between Conant and Schaumburg. Yes, Schaumburg won their meeting by 19 points on Dec. 19, but this is about what happened over the holidays.

Conant bounced back by allowing just 35.5 points a game and winning its fourth York title since 2002 in overtime over a tough and talented St. Ignatius team.

Schaumburg took second at the state's oldest and prestigious tourney in Pontiac and in a span of a little more than 24 hours beat last year's Class 2A runner-up Peoria Manual and Plainfield North before losing to Warren in the final.

Figure on a much closer rematch when Conant hosts Schaumburg on Jan. 24.

Other team efforts

Hoffman Estates: Bounced back from tough semifinal OT loss to Glenbrook South to take third at Elgin.

St. Viator: Also rebounded from second-round heartbreaker with Notre Dame to finish fifth at Wheeling.

Fremd: Started to see some payoff from tough early schedule by winning first two at Elgin and playing Hoffman tougher in second meeting to finish fourth.

Elk Grove: Grens showed signs of turning the corner by going 3-2 at Jacobs and finishing with 15-point win over traditionally solid Cary-Grove team.

Top player

For three days, Pontiac was the house of Cully Payne as the Alabama-bound Schaumburg senior put himself among the Mr. Basketball leaders. Payne averaged 23.5 points and 4.3 assists and hit 11 3-pointers in 4 games.

He also fought off back spasms for a pair of 27-point games on New Year's Eve. And Payne continued to show he's one of the best closers with his coldblooded 25-footer to beat Plainfield North in the semis.

Next best

Conant senior Tim Gilhooly, who won MVP honors at York. Gilhooly averaged a team-high 14.8 points and hit 13 3s and scored 22 points with five 3s in a semifinal rout of Oswego.

Best of the rest

Alan Aboona, St. Viator: Junior point guard was all-tourney at Wheeling after averaging 18.5 points and hitting eight 3s. Had a phenomenal fourth-quarter in second-round loss to Notre Dame with 15 points on an array of tough drives before nearly hitting a winning 50-footer.

Richie Kemph, Meadows: Continued his breakout junior offensive season by averaging 16 points and hitting 10 3s for Elgin all-tourney honors.

Chris Klimek, Fremd: Junior forward hit double figures in every game and averaged 13.5 points as Elgin all-tourney pick.

Matt Martinski, Elk Grove: The senior had three 20-point games and averaged 18.4 to make Jacobs all-tourney team.

Luke Mead, Hoffman: Senior guard averaged 14.8 points and hit 11 3s and scored 27 points in third-place game for Elgin all-tourney honors.

Kevin Mulligan, BG: Tough junior guard averaged 16.3 points and hit seven 3s as Elgin all-tourney pick.

Alex Regalado, Leyden: Senior all-tourney pick at Lemont averaged 19.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and nearly 4 steals a game. Also won tourney's hustle award and hit driving jumper with 0.6 seconds left to beat Walther Lutheran in seventh-place game.

Tony Rizzo, Conant: All-around senior threat averaged 7.3 points but scored 15 in second-round win and provided solid defense for repeat York all-tourney honors.

Demitriy Velikov, Hersey: Senior guard averaged 11.5 points and 4.8 rebounds and hit eight 3s as all-tourney pick at Pekin.

Unsung hero

Conant senior Cameron Leavitt did get his share of attention for his title-winning buzzer-beater in overtime against St. Ignatius for the York title. Leavitt didn't get all-tourney honors but his value went beyond averaging 11.8 points a game.

"He deserved it," said teammate Tim Gilhooly. "The way he defended the best players and offensively he played phenomenal. Assists, rebounds he did it all."

Conant coach Tom McCormack agreed.

"Those two (Gilhooly and Tony Rizzo) will be the first ones to tell you Cameron was the best player in the tournament," McCormack said. "At least the best player on our team for the tournament."

Glad to see

So many close games. Twelve that came down to the final minute the last two weeks - including Hoffman's 1-point win over South Elgin the Saturday before most of the tourneys got rolling and the Pontiac semifinals on TV.

Wish I had seen

Better weather. Snow, pea-soup fog and driving rain definitely seemed to have an impact on matchups that should have drawn better the first two days at Wheeling and the last two at Elgin.

Glad I didn't see

For fans who like to scream for a foul on every play, then Geneva's win over North Grand in the DeKalb tourney was for you.

The Chicago Public League school started fouling immediately throughout the fourth quarter in a 29-point loss. Geneva wound up 53-for-67 on free throws - the makes second all-time and the attempts tied for third all-time according to IHSA records.

Pushed to the limit

Glenbrook South 6-9 senior and Notre Dame recruit Jack Cooley had a monster title game at Elgin with 24 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocked shots in a loss to Neuqua Valley.

But midway through the fourth quarter, Cooley came out for 11/2 minutes because he had to get sick in a garbage can near the Titans' bench. The result was a 6-point swing that put Neuqua ahead for good.

"I was getting really tired but coach (Scott Nemecek) kept telling me to push harder and harder," Cooley said with a grin. "He said, 'You have to leave it on the floor and push yourself a little harder.'

"I would have left some of myself on the floor if I didn't come out."

Neuqua coach Todd Sutton joked "he was making me sick" after Cooley scored 22 points in the first 19 minutes.

Mixed MSL results

The West went 14-11 in tourney play heading into what should be an interesting next few weeks in its race. Conant hosts Hoffman on Friday, Hoffman hosts Schaumburg on Thursday, Jan. 15 and Schaumburg is at Conant on Jan. 24.

The East went 8-17 for its worst holiday record since the MSL realigned before the 1998 season. Prospect and BG were 9-1 after winning tourney openers but lost their next three and now head to Schaumburg and Conant respectively for tough Tuesday crossovers.

Odd numbers

•This one is actually even as Conant has won all five of its York titles in even-numbered years. Only Gordon Tech (6) has more titles in the tourney's 35-year history.

•Fremd's Dan Bruno, Chris Klimek, Zach Monaghan and Will Reising all hitting double figures and scoring all the points in a loss to Hoffman in Elgin's third-place game.

•Cully Payne and Justin Swiercz combining for 47 points in Schaumburg's 50-48 semifinal win over Plainfield North at Pontiac. Perrish Bell scored the other 3 points.

•After Barrington lost 95-88 to Woodstock in overtime in the first day of the Jacobs tourney, Elk Grove came out the next game and pitched a first-quarter shutout in a 57-35 win over Wauconda.

Odd rematches

•Warren and Schaumburg's title game at Pontiac was also a rematch of their 1999 Class AA state semifinal.

•Hersey and Mt. Carmel's seventh-place game at Pekin was a rematch of their 1985 AA state quarterfinal.

•Two of the most storied programs in state history with two of the best champions ever - Thornridge (1972) and Quincy (1981) - met on the final day at Pekin.

Thornridge beat Quincy 104-69 for the '72 title. But how the mighty have fallen as Quincy won Pekin's 15th-place game 55-27.

mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com