St. Viator feeds off Markovits' energy

Richard Markovits made a sign of the time he played during his junior basketball season at St. Viator.

A grand total of four minutes.

"I put it on my wall for some motivation every time I felt lazy," Markovits said. "I wanted this year to be different than any other."

It has been for the former freshman "B" team player who is anything but lazy on the court for the 13-4 Lions. Markovits has emerged as one of the top reserves with a value which goes beyond his 3.8 points a game average.

"Every day he brings energy - even in practice he's the most energetic kid," said senior and third-year varsity starter Richard McLoughlin. "That's why we love having him come off the bench.

"We don't lose anything when he comes in. He can 'D' it up and when he comes in it picks us up even more."

That's exactly what Markovits wants to do when he gets in the game.

"He's willing to do the dirty work," said Viator coach Joe Majkowski. "He does a lot of little things, but the big thing is the energy he brings to the floor for us."

Markovits also provided an offensive boost with 9 points in last Friday's 62-56 East Suburban Catholic Conference win over Marist. But he knows his job is to get rebounds and do what he can to free up leading scorers Alan Aboona and McLoughlin.

"I wanted this year to be different than any other," Markovits said. "I worked hard and hit the weights and worked on my ballhandling skills."

All because Markovits would like to add a third regional title to the boys basketball championship sign in Cahill Gym. The Lions can match last year's win total with a home sweep of Joliet Catholic tonight and Northridge Prep on Saturday.

"We haven't reached our full potential yet," Markovits said. "As the season has been going on the captains (Aboona, McLoughlin and Brendan King) have been stepping up and getting everyone to focus and play hard."

The streak continues: Almost every lengthy streak has moments where it appears it will get broken.

But Prospect didn't break last Saturday as it extended its Mid-Suburban East winning streak to 22 even though it led for less than 21/2 minutes and was without injured scoring leader Joe LaTulip in a 67-64 win over Hersey.

"I know our team was very anxious and worried to see what would happen without Joe," said senior Sam Pope, who scored a career-high 13 points. "But everyone stepped up. We have to keep continuing to play big and play hard until he gets back."

It helps that Pope had seen his minutes and role expanding since the season started.

"Any player can say the more minutes they get, they'll get more comfortable," Pope said. "I'll admit in my first varsity game I was very timid and didn't take a lot of shots."

But Pope showed no fear down the stretch Saturday with his 10-foot floater down the lane to put the Knights up 63-61 with 2:22 to play.

And senior Jack Redding didn't let a tough shooting night through three quarters stop him from scoring 10 of his 15 points in the final 5:10. He went 8-for-10 at the line in the fourth quarter to finish 11-for-15.

"My 3-point shot was off (0-for-5) so I knew I had to try to get the ball inside," Redding said, "and try to get to the line and find other ways to score.

"It's definitely a confidence-builder for us without Joe. Beating Hersey, we feel we can beat anyone now."

Prospect (13-3, 5-0) will have to win at improving Elk Grove on Saturday as it tries to join Hersey (1993-95), Rolling Meadows (1988-90) and Fremd (1987-89) as the only MSL teams with back-to-back unbeaten division finishes.

On Tuesday, the Knights get a rematch of last year's Class 4A sectional semifinal loss when they visit Glenbrook North.

Fremd (15-1, 5-0) also puts its MSL West lead on the line Saturday when it visits Schaumburg (10-6, 4-1). The Vikings rallied from a 1-point fourth-quarter deficit to win the first meeting 55-45 as Chris Klimek scored 16 points.

The MSL has had unbeaten division champions meet in the league title game just twice - Meadows and Fremd in 1989 and Arlington and Prospect in 1975.

Charging for consistency: First-year Christian Liberty coach Ken Kramer couldn't find much fault with how his team played as it won three games and its inaugural tournament Saturday.

The Chargers followed it up by beating Faith Lutheran for their fourth straight win Tuesday.

Then they came out Wednesday and scored 15 points in the first 20-plus minutes against North Shore Country Day. That was followed by a 40-point in a little more than 10 minutes.

But they were outscored 9-0 the final 1:17 of a 61-55 loss.

"What it comes down to is their ability to work together and run the offense," Kramer said. "When we do that we do great. But there's been no middle ground."

The Chargers next chance to find it is tonight when they host Illinois Math and Science Academy.

"In the tournament we did real well," said sophomore scoring leader Luke Comerouski. "We played pretty smart and shot well.

"We've had problems with consistency and we need to bring it out every single game."

Looking for consistency across town: Too much at the line and too many drives.

That's what Hersey coach Steve Messer saw after Prospect was 29-for-41 on free throws last Saturday.

"The disappointing part to me is I felt it was something where we had really progressed," Messer said of allowing only an average of 44.6 points in a five-game stretch. "It wasn't good enough (Saturday).

"The first half you could see the way we played defense but we just didn't stay with it. We were inconsistent - and we didn't lose it offensively."

The Huskies were without 6-10 senior Brian Fabrizius (8.3 ppg), who Messer said could miss a month from a collapsed lung.

Hungrier Wolves: Niles West senior Boris Cayemitte admitted he didn't know a lot about Bob Williams when he was hired as the school's head coach last June.

"I knew he coached at Schaumburg and won a state championship," Cayemitte said after a 50-48 overtime win over Buffalo Grove two weeks ago.

Cayemitte has certainly learned a lot more as the 9-7 Wolves have matched their win total of last season.

"He's a lot harder on us and makes sure we do what's right," Cayemitte said. "We have more trust in coach and what he says is important.

"We're the same skills-wise but he's made us actually use our skills. And defense is the No. 1 thing."

Which is no different than what Williams preached for 18 years at Schaumburg. The Wolves have displayed their resiliency the last two weekends by rebounding from lopsided losses to Waukegan and Maine South with dramatic last-second wins over BG and St. Patrick.

"It's a great group of kids and they're really working diligently to get the job done," Williams said. "There are so many things and habits we're trying to change.

"It's not easy to change habits and we went back to some of our old habits (against Waukegan)."

Tip-ins: Former Palatine standout Ed Molitor Jr. is in his first year as an assistant coach at Marmion for head coach and former DePaul player Rashon Burno - Elk Grove held Rolling Meadows scoreless for 9:46 in its 48-26 win last Saturday - Grayslake Central handed Johnsburg its first loss in 15 games 65-59 on Wednesday - After a two-week layoff, Leyden is at Proviso East and Addison Trail this weekend to start a stretch of Fremd visits Larkin at 7:15 p.m. next Wednesday.