Wheaton Warrenville South waits out Conant

Wheaton Warrenville South never felt pressured into shots it did not want to take by Conant's swarming full-court defense Wednesday.

The Tigers patiently and calmly worked the ball out of trouble for shots they could hit at a 65 percent success rate.

And they combined their accuracy with only 8 turnovers in the first 28 minutes to claim the consolation championship of York's 36th annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic with a 65-48 victory in Elmhurst.

"We really trusted each other to make that extra pass and didn't take many selfish shots," said Wheaton Warrenville South coach Mike Healy after his team went 26-for-40 from the field and 8-for-14 on 3-pointers.

"It was probably the most unselfish basketball we've played," said senior Derek Babb, who had 4 assists as the Tigers hit 11 of their first 13 second-half shots en route to a 61-40 lead. "We passed up good shots for great shots. We really looked for our teammates and made it easy on ourselves."

All-tourney pick Reilly O'Toole was again one of the big beneficiaries for the Tigers (9-3) with 17 points on 6-for-10 shooting and three 3-pointers.

But 6-foot-4 senior Will Dolatowski snapped out of a shooting slump with 18 points on 8-for-10 shooting and had 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

"I've been working on my shot," Dolatowski said after scoring 8 first-quarter points. "It was all mental and confidence-wise hitting two of my first three 3-pointers was big.

"Everything else was easy layups on great passes from Reilly, Greg (McAndrew) and Derek.

"We made the extra pass for open shots and open layups all game."

Travis Kern came off the bench to add 14 points with three 3s and 6-6 Jason Schuman added 8 points.

"When we've got all those guys clicking we have a lot of weapons," Healy said.

"We have six or seven guys who can put up double digits," Babb said. "No one looks for their own number and there is no selfishness."

Conant (7-6) was even at 17-17 on a Taylor Peterson (10 points) free throw 6:26 before halftime. Dolatowski found Schuman for a backdoor layup to start a 17-2 tear which bridged halftime and put the Tigers ahead by double figures the rest of the way.

Christian Sotos had 12 points to lead Conant, which shot 45 percent from the field (18-for-40) but was just 5-for-25 on 3s. O'Toole had 8 rebounds of the Tigers' 23-12 advantage on the tournament's defending champs.

"We just couldn't do the things defensively or off the glass to generate what we like to generate," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "They're a really, really smart, sound basketball team.

"It was like they were out there playing chess and we were out playing checkers at times."

And the Tigers believe they're moving in the right direction at the right time.

"We're starting to click," Dolatowski said. "Hopefully we'll play like this the rest of the season."