Conant finds the range, stops St. Charles East

All that 3-point practice paid off for Conant.

Through three quarters on Monday the Cougars launched longball after longball to little effect against St. Charles East at York High.

Then in the fourth quarter Conant hit 4 straight from downtown, lifting the Cougars to a 60-47 victory in consolation bracket action at the 36th annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic in Elmhurst.

"We had a very, very difficult time getting shots to fall early, some pretty good looks," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "We just kept preaching to our guys, hang in there, hang in there. We finally got a little bit of a spurt toward the end."

St. Charles East (3-7) did itself no favors by turning the ball over 26 times including 10 in the third quarter. While Conant (6-5) endured its 5-of-28 stretch beyond the arc it didn't seem to matter much. Eventually, it did.

"That's why Conant wins a high percentage, they value the basketball, they don't beat themselves," Saints coach Brian Clodi said. "Today you can really say that we probably beat ourselves, having 26 turnovers."

St. Charles East led 39-38 on 2 free throws by Spencer Motley at 5:47 of the fourth quarter.

On successive trips downcourt Conant got 3-balls from Andrew Spangler, Christian Sotos, Spangler again and Garett Gatz to put the Cougars up 50-39 at 4:07.

The Saints got no closer than 52-44, on a pair of Kendall Stephens foul shots, with 2:57 to play.

"A lot of us have already this year had a bunch of streaks where we're not making anything and then suddenly, a snap of the finger, it'll just all start falling," said Spangler, whose 8 points came on 3-of-4 shooting.

St. Charles East's shots were falling, to a solid 16-of-33 clip, with Zack Burns and Jess Striedl leading the Saints with 15 points apiece.

Although the teams were tied 12-12 after a quarter and 24-24 at halftime, all those wasted possessions weighed on St. Charles East.

"You can't turn the ball over 26 times and expect to even hang in toward the end," said Striedl, 6-for-6 from the floor. "And that's why we lost by 13 points at the end of the game."

Conant senior Sotos led all scorers with 17 points. Taylor Peterson scored 13 and Gatz tallied 11 for the Cougars, who excel particularly in even-numbered years at the Tosh. Conant won the tourney in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008.

"The positive," St. Charles East's Burns said, "is that Conant is a great team and the fact that we were with them throughout most of the game, that is a positive in itself."