Maine West zones in to eliminate Wheeling

An early Maine West lead proved to be too much for Wheeling to overcome on Monday night in the New Trier Class 4A boys basketball regional quarterfinal.

The Warriors were able to build a 13-point first-half lead and the Wildcats' comeback efforts could only get them to tie the score with 41 seconds remaining on 2 James Kurtz free throws.

Maine West was able to score the final 4 points from that moment for a 44-40 win in Winnetka.

"Wheeling is a very dangerous team and we knew they would mount some sort of comeback," Maine West coach Erik McNeill said. "I thought our discipline on the offensive end and rebounding on the defensive end is what kept us in the game."

It was the third meeting this year between Maine West (10-18) and Wheeling (7-19), and unlike the previous losses, the Warriors played a 2-3 zone defense for the majority of the game on Monday.

Early on, it forced a lot of Wheeling turnovers as the Warriors now get a third shot at top seed and Central Suburban North rival Glenbrook North (19-4) at 7:30 p.m. today.

"We thought we could do a better job of matching up with their players with a zone," McNeill said. "We thought with a man-to-man we weren't going to be able to stay ahead of them and defend."

Wheeling coach Lou Wool acknowledged the Warriors' zone caused some problems for his team.

"I think they did a nice job with their 2-3 zone defense, and they took away some of our strengths," Wool said. "They did a nice job using it."

Maine West had a definite size advantage in the post, where 6-foot-7 Tommy Solis caused some problems for Wheeling, whose tallest player, Michael Zimmer, is listed at 6-3.

Solis scored a game-high 15 points for the Warriors.

"We needed somebody to start scoring and I just stepped up tonight," Solis said. "I can still do a lot better. I had a lot of nice assists coming in from the other players and I fed off their momentum a lot."

There were many moments in the game where it looked like the result was already decided - including a 10 point Maine West lead with 4:41 to play. But Wheeling never gave up.

"We didn't quit, we continued to fight and we gave ourselves a chance to come back and maybe tie or win it," Wool said. "I'm really proud of the effort we had all the way up until the end."