Walther Lutheran eliminates Immaculate Conception
Neat coaching jobs and 13-point losses typically don't jibe. Immaculate Conception coach Darren Howard and his Knights somehow managed it.
Trailing Walther Lutheran by 24 points midway in the third quarter, Class 2A regional host IC made it respectable in Walther's 75-62 semifinal victory Thursday in Elmhurst.
After five straight regional final appearances, though, respectable didn't satisfy No. 1 seed IC (12-15).
"We kind of had to go a little bit of mish-mosh type of defense, had to foul really, really early because I had to stop the clock," said Howard, who went 15 deep to keep up IC's end of 36 second-half fouls. "At least I think we made it a little bit interesting, but we were never really in the game. Disappointing."
Broncos guard Alphonso Dunbar, with Logan Davis atop a 2-3 zone, stole the ball on IC's first two possessions to help No. 4 seed Walther (12-15) go up 11-3.
Walther's quickness and athleticism - two reasons Howard and Walther coach Bill Koehne both found the seeding curious - dinged IC's man defense; the Broncos' zone hindered IC's shooting and point guard Mike Randick's penetration.
Cotton's 14-point second quarter, which had Howard switching to a zone himself, put Walther up 36-20 at halftime. Walther led 49-25 at 3:37 of the third quarter on a Davis three-point play.
Pressing full court, Howard forced Walther to earn it from the foul line, and his Knights also made 15 of 17 free throws, led by Randick, Anthony Loss, Stephen Maloney and Matt Vesey, to trim the deficit to 57-42 after three quarters.
Walther's 10-of-19 fourth-quarter free-throw shooting countered 7 of Knights junior Demetrius Mobley's 13 points.
"We're lucky they didn't shoot real well," said Koehne, who'll face No. 2 Luther North (11-14), a 56-46 winner over Douglass. "They were 2 for 13, we had them for, in the second half from 3-point range. If they had been shooting it better we might have been in some real trouble because we didn't shoot free throws (23 of 37 for the game) as well as we needed to."
Thus ended the prep basketball careers of Knights such as Will Cronin, Tom Hart, Phil Albreski, Austin Hennessey, Caleb Hamilton, Kevin Nutley, Matt McMahon and Randick, who scored a team-high 16 points.
Junior forward Mobley vowed to return strong, joined by players from a 24-4 sophomore team.
"We've got to get hungry," he said. "We've got to take this loss and just be hungry and just go into next year focused."