Paul, Devils win another close one
That was close. Again.
And Warren's boys basketball team won. Again.
When the Blue Devils haven't been posting double-digit margins of victory during their current double-digit win streak, they've been finding ways to triumph anyway.
Against host Stevenson on Tuesday night, the Blue Devils used another dominating performance by Brandon Paul to edge the Patriots 55-48.
The Illinois recruit had 29 points, 8 steals and 7 rebounds to lead North Suburban Lake Division-leading Warren (15-1, 6-0) to its 13th straight win.
"Brandon Paul is an all-stater and the No. 1 player in Illinois for a reason," Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said. "He's a very, very good player and we tried to defend him, but we just weren't able to play as good as we wanted to on him."
Paul had 18 points and 6 steals after halftime. His two-handed dunk off a missed driving layup attempt by teammate Aaron Montgomery beat the third-quarter buzzer and had Warren up 42-38.
"The second half he was outstanding," said coach Chuck Ramsey, whose Blue Devils led only 24-23 at halftime. "The first half his defense was not very good. But in the second half he was much more aggressive going to the basket and playing a lot better 'D.' "
The win marked the Blue Devils' eighth by eight or fewer points. Included are three overtime wins.
"We've done a real good job this year in the last four minutes of games," Ramsey said. "We're playing a lot of seniors who played a lot last year."
Those senior include Paul, Jake Anderson, James Poliquin and David Duncan. But against Stevenson, Anderson, Poliquin and Duncan each picked up his third foul before the start of the fourth quarter. Reserves Ryan Maguire, Shahron Thomas, Marquise Thomas and Jeff Kemp scored just 5 points combined, but gave the visitors strong minutes.
"Those guys played good defense and were not liabilities in any way," Ramsey said.
Stevenson (8-7, 2-4) stayed close despite managing just 5 rebounds (none offensive) in the first half and committing 19 turnovers on the night.
Jeff Arenson led the Patriots with 14 points (two 3-pointers). Grant Johnson scored 13 coming off the bench and Nate Johnson had 12 and 5 rebounds.
When Warren needed him most, Paul delivered.
He scored the Blue Devils' final 14 points of the third quarter. Stevenson was still within four midway through the fourth, but Montgomery fed a behind-the-back pass to Kemp to increase the margin to 6, and then Paul scored baseline to make it 50-42.
Paul added a breakaway dunk to cap his night.
"I was slacking a little bit on the defensive end (in the first half)," Paul said. "I was letting my man get by me too easily. I was getting screened too easily, so I wanted to pick that up."
As has been the case this season, Warren was tough down the stretch. The unflappable Blue Devils committed just 1 turnover in the final quarter.
"When we get bad plays, we just stay together and kind of encourage each other to play harder," Paul said. "It keeps us in games."
Stevenson played again without starting guard Jeff Levitt, who missed his third straight game with an intestinal infection.
"We weren't quite the symphony we talked about," Ambrose said. "We had the sheet on music. But we just didn't play very good."
Wheeling 56, Round Lake 45: Jake Paulsen scored 21 points for the visiting Panthers, who led the nonconference game 22-18 at halftime before being outscored 20-6 in the third quarter.
Round Lake (3-15) played only eight players. Starters John Martinez and David Windham missed the team bus.
Lennox Davis added 16 points for Round Lake.
"We played great," Panthers coach Howard Kravets said. "We were totally prepared for (Wheeling). We just ran out of gas. I think we surprised them. We had one bad quarter."