Hoffman Estates topples Meadows in OT for 5th at Elgin

Posted December 26, 2009 10:00 pm

By John Juettner Daily Herald Correspondent

The battle for fifth place at the 35th annual Pepsi/Daily Herald Elgin Holiday Tournament between Hoffman Estates and Rolling Meadows on Saturday was a defensive one.

After 32 grind-it-out minutes, the score was deadlocked 40-40 to force overtime.

In that extra period, Hoffman built a quick 5-point lead - all scored by senior guard Jimmy Fabbrini - and converted 7 of 10 free throws to earn fifth place with a 52-45 win.

"I thought the difference was our guys came up with a few good stops on defense in the fourth quarter," said Hawks coach Bill Wandro. "And Jim Fabbrini hit some real big shots for us."

Wandro said his team was frustrated by not being able to consistently make open shot attempts.

"Fabbrini got over it first," Wandro said. "He said 'I'm going after it.' He hit that 3-pointer (in overtime) that gave him some confidence."

Fabbrini scored 8 of the Hawks' 12 overtime points and finished with a game-high 14.

"Usually when guys are kind of thinking their game isn't going right, for one guy to step up and start doing the right thing, it tends to lift everyone up as well," Wandro said. "And that's what happened tonight with him (Fabbrini)."

In addition to Fabbrini, guard Joe Valadez was all over the court for the Hawks. Valadez finished with 8 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.

Hoffman (8-4) also received nice performances from big men Lance Vesper (10 points, 7 rebounds) and Colin Conway (9 points, 7 rebounds).

Meadows coach Kevin Katovich said his team executed well for the first 32 minutes, but wasn't as sharp in overtime.

"In overtime I think we had some guys pressing a little bit on offense, and defensively we had a couple missed assignments in our match-up (zone) and that kind of hurt us," Katovich said.

Senior guard Tyler Allen led the Mustangs (5-7) with 13 points. Richie Kemph, one of the leading scorers in the area, was in-and-out of the lineup all night by Katovich's choice. Kemph finished with 6 points.

Paul Volkman added 9 points and 7 rebounds for Meadows.

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