Conant visits Hoffman Estates in showdown

Forget the big pregame speeches and ploys to get everyone ready to play.

Those can be put away for another time for Conant (16-5, 6-2) and host Hoffman Estates (17-6, 6-2) when they meet at 7:30 p.m. today with a share of the Mid-Suburban League West Division boys basketball title at stake.

"We're always going to come out tough against Conant," said Hoffman senior guard Luke Mead. "You're not going to need any external motivation."

The winner will still have some work left to determine who visits Prospect for the MSL title Feb. 25. Schaumburg (17-5, 5-3), which looks to end a three-game losing streak to Fremd tonight, will be hoping for a Hoffman win to have their meeting next week determine who represents the West.

For Hoffman, which hasn't won the West since 2004, a week-and-a-half break turned out to be exactly what it needed after a 54-40 loss at Barrington. Mead scored 26 points and Chris Hall added 10 as they scored their team's first 29 points.

Mead led the way last weekend with 16 and 22 points in wins over Fremd and Maine East. But Hall chipped in 10 and 13 points, and 6-foot-7 Lance Vesper averaged 8.5 points.

And each night Hoffman got 9 points from Kevin Tiongson, 7 from Kemill Long and 6 from Tom Dombrowski.

"We definitely needed to come together more as a team," Mead said. "The Barrington game we had two guys scoring and that wasn't working out for us.

"We went back to the drawing board - worked on getting tougher with the ball and being a more well-rounded scoring team."

Mead (22 points), Long (13) and Hall (10) led Hoffman in a 51-43 win at Conant on Jan. 9.

The Cougars, who are trying to win a third straight West title, know they don't want to be chasing after Mead was 13-for-14 at the free-throw line and Hoffman was 18-for-20 in the fourth quarter in the first meeting. Mead was 18-for-20 in Saturday's 64-51 win over Maine East.

But that was the middle of a three-game Cougars losing streak. Now they're on a six-game winning streak behind the senior trio of Tim Gilhooly (14.6 ppg, 51 3s), Cameron Leavitt (10 ppg) and Tony Rizzo (9.4).

Schaumburg would have the head-to-head tiebreaker to the title game if the West finished in a three-way tie.

Fremd bounces back: After making a long climb back within a game of .500, Fremd took a step back with a three-game losing streak.

The Vikings rebounded with a 66-40 win over Leyden on Saturday and have a chance to beat Schaumburg for a fourth straight time and end the Saxons' MSL West title hopes.

"Our effort was there for all those games," said Fremd senior Will Reising. "We knew we had to tune it up a little bit on offense and do some little things on defense."

Fremd lost by 2 points to Conant, 3 points to St. Charles North and 8 points to Hoffman.

"We played with much more of a higher level of intensity for the last month or so," said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski. "We had some breakdowns execution-wise (in the losing streak) but the effort was good."

CSL North showdown: Maine East (18-5, 7-1) and its hopes of a Central Suburban North title will go through perennial power Glenbrook North (14-4, 8-0) tonight in Northbrook.

The Demons have lost only twice in their last 15 games - 64-51 Saturday at Hoffman and 61-59 on Jan. 9 to Glenbrook North.

"We haven't played as crisp as we had early on, but in January and February things get a little tougher," said second-year Maine East coach and former Rolling Meadows all-area player Glenn Olson. "Sometimes you do get a little complacent, so you need to get punched in the mouth to get back to understanding what's important."

Change of possessions: Class 4A and 3A postseason pairings are scheduled to be released by the IHSA today. Elk Grove, Prospect and Hoffman Estates are hosting regionals - Tuesday night features a big rivalry and two of the best junior point guards in the area when Prospect and Joe LaTulip host St. Viator and Alan Aboona - If East Suburban Catholic Conference leader St. Joseph (19-3) beats Joliet Catholic tonight, it will bring a 10-game winning streak to Conant on Saturday - Glenbrook South (12-8), which visits Schaumburg on Saturday, is 2-3 since Notre Dame-bound Jack Cooley had thumb surgery.