Tough fourth quarter costs Conant

Defending champion Conant dropped its opening game in the first round of the 36th annual Jack Tosh tournament at York on Saturday.

The Cougars ran into a buzzsaw in the fourth quarter and lost to Downers Grove South 54-44.

Leading 38-35 with 7:27 left in the game after a Christian Soto (9 points) basket, the Mustangs (6-4) went on a 13-0 run over a 3:24 span to seal the contest.

The Cougars (5-5) commited 9 of their 21 turnovers when the Mustangs went to a 1-3-1 half-court trap defense.

"It was our inablity to handle their defense that turned the game around," said Cougars coach Tom McCormack. "Their press made us tenative and we lost our aggression."

"We went to the trap in the hopes that we could change the momenteum," said Mustangs coach Jay Baum. " We played really good defense in that span."

The Cougars started well, leading 8-0 and 10-2, but the Mustangs rallied to trail 10-7 at the end of the first quarter.

"That was another part," McCormack said. "We had the chance to widen the lead, but our shots didn't fall."

The Cougars shot 4 of 15 in the first quarter and 34 percent for the game on 17 of 50 attempts.

The Mustangs' Jamall Millson made 2 steals and scored 6 of his team-high 11 points in the fourth quarter. Otis Wilbut, Mark Bentley and Bledi Dervishi all scored 9 points for the Mustangs, who take on unbeaten Brother Rice on Monday.

The Cougars will face St.Charles East at 1:45 p.m. Monday in the consolation round.

"We were prepared for their press," said Cougars guard Garett Gatz, who scored 8 points. "We had good looks at the basket early on but we just weren't hitting. Then things just didn't go our way in the fourth quarter."