Conant tops Glenbard S., gets shot at York consolation
A first-round loss ended Conant's hopes of a repeat championship in York's 36th annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic.
But the Cougars boys basketball team has a shot at claiming the tournament's consolation prize after outlasting Glenbard South 65-57 in a drawn-out battle with 62 free throws, 53 fouls and 48 turnovers Tuesday in Elmhurst.
"After the first loss, as a team we discussed it," said Conant senior Garett Gatz, who scored 13 points and hit four 3-pointers. "We wanted to make sure we got to the consolation championship and played our hearts out to get to that game and hopefully win that one."
Conant (7-5), which has won York's big prize five times, will try for its third consolation crown (1997 and 1998) at 5 p.m. today against Wheaton Warrenville South (8-3), a 37-36 winner over St. Ignatius.
Depth and determination propelled the Cougars as they shot just 30 percent from the field (18-for-60), went 8-for-32 on 3-pointers and were outrebounded 39-26 by the taller Raiders (5-7).
"I really like the tremendous amount of hustle plays we had," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "We had a pretty good height disadvantage so we needed to find a way to overcome that."
The Cougars got a depth charge for their full-court pressure defense with the play off the bench of Dylan Bartuch (8 points), Brian Wadsworth (7 points), Kevin Chua, London Dokubo, Mike Keegan and Avery Osby.
Wadsworth, a 6-foot-3 junior, didn't allow Glenbard South's 6-9 Dylan Rheault (11 points) to get any of his 10 rebounds in the final quarter.
"The guys off the bench played great and with great intensity," Gatz said. "We all made great hustle plays."
Glenbard South, which plays St. Ignatius for 11th place at 3:30 p.m., shot 44.7 percent from the field (17-for-38) but committed 33 turnovers. Six resulted in a 38-33 lead midway through the third quarter turning into a 42-40 deficit.
"They did a nice job of utilizing their pressure to get us in a hurry and we never really broke that," said Raiders coach Wade Hardtke. "We got caught up in the pace of the game and it was just a crazy game. There was no flow and ultimately that's what kind of got us."
Along with starters Michael Rovansek (14 points), Joe Harks (8 points) and Trace Wanless (7 points) and 6-6 Pat Childs (6 points) fouling out.
"I couldn't have asked for anything more from our guys," Hardtke said.
An acrobatic underhand scoop drive by Christian Sotos (16 points before fouling out at 2:18) and Wadsworth's layup off a feed by Taylor Peterson (12 points) put Conant ahead to stay at 51-47 with 5:47 left.
Glenbard South got within 57-55 on Harks' driving 10-footer at 1:53. But Andrew Spangler found Gatz for a right-corner 3 at 1:38 as Conant scored 8 of the last 10 points.
"Coach says to keep shooting and keep shooting because they're going to fall," Gatz said. "He always has confidence in you."