Conant heats up just in time
Conant's boys basketball team found its 3-point shooting just in the nick of time Wednesday night in its Class 4A regional semifinal at Zion-Benton.
After hitting 1-of-14 shots from long range in the first half and 1-of-18 after three quarters, the sixth-seeded Cougars sank their final four 3s in the final 4:49 to hold off No. 12 Libertyville 49-43 in a hard-fought battle.
Conant (19-7) will face No. 3 host Zion-Benton (24-6) for the regional title Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Libertyville (10-17) played the Cougars tough the whole way and led 14-10 after one quarter and 22-17 at halftime.
But the Cougars outscored the Wildcats 12-7 in the third quarter to force a 29-29 tie entering the final period. Libertyville had 20 turnovers overall to 12 for Conant.
A 3-pointer by Libertyville's John Colao (12 points) gave the Wildcats a 32-31 lead with 5:05 to play, but Conant's Eric Madeck answered with a trey 16 seconds later to set off a flurry of 3-point baskets.
Two free throws by Libertyville's Josh Trees tied the score at 34-34, but Conant's Tim Gilhooly responded with back-to-back 3s for a 40-34 lead with 2:45 to play.
Colao's fourth 3-pointer cut the gap to 40-37 with 2:28 remaining, but Gilhooly (team-high 14 points) nailed another trey to boost the Cougars' lead back to 43-37 with 2:15 left.
"It was just all my teammates setting some huge screens and they made some great passes to find me open," said Gilhooly. "We just couldn't find the basket early, but we wanted to keep our defensive pressure up, shut them down, and find our shots."
A drive by Libertyville's Paul Aynilian cut the gap to 45-41 with 39 seconds to play, but Conant hit 4 free throws in the final 33 seconds to seal the win.
Senior Jeremy Letchford led the Wildcats with 14 points and 8 rebounds. Taylor Peterson (12 points) and Tony Rizzo (11 points) also hit double figures for the Cougars.
"When we've won our big games we've had three guys in double figures scoring, but tonight we struggled offensively," said Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil, whose team was outrebounded 27-24. "I really can't complain how we played defense, but as we got a little fatigued (Gilhooly) knocked the shots down when we weren't quite there."
Conant will have a huge task against the powerful Zee-Bees, last year's 4A state runner-up, Friday.
"I didn't think our shot selection was good early in the game and it turned into some easy run-outs for them," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "It was kind of an ugly game, but we won it and we have to improve on what we did wrong for Friday night."