Maine South defeats St. Francis

Yes, Maine South entered York's Jack Tosh Boys Basketball Holiday Classic as the top seed and promptly lost its first two games.

That's no reason to sulk, coach Tony Lavorato believes. To confirm it, Maine South beat St. Francis on Wednesday, 49-40 in Elmhurst.

"We were able to get better, we were able to beat a nice program in St. Francis," said Lavorato, whose 8-4 Hawks will play Glenbard South, a 56-54 winner over Palatine, for 13th place at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. St. Francis gets Palatine at noon for 15th.

"We're looking forward to one more," Lavorato said. "So if we can finish the tournament 2-2 we'll count it as a success. More or less, if we can get better each game we'll count it as a success, and right now we've had a successful tournament."

Maine South's Matt Palucki certainly had success. The 6-foot-7 senior led all scorers with 29 points, a 32-minute force who also helped guards Tony Albano and Nick Calabrese run offense. The Hawks added 10 points from 6-5 forward Casey Bruce.

Palucki helped extend a 23-21 Hawks halftime lead to 32-27 after three quarters and lifted the lead to 45-33 with 1 minute, 32 seconds left with 10 fourth-quarter points.

"My coaches wanted me to be more assertive," said Palucki, who converted a three-point play in the fourth quarter and a dunk off Albano's inbounds pass.

"I felt like in the first two games in the third and fourth quarters I wasn't playing enough on the court, so I tried to take over the game in those quarters. I think that I was successful today in doing that."

St. Francis (3-7) also started the tourney 0-2. The Spartans overcame a 11-7 deficit after a quarter to take a brief 19-16 lead fueled by Ryan Coyle and Mike Scholl. They finished with 20 and 17 points, respectively.

The third-leading Spartans scorer, Brian Spahn, scored 2 points. Coach Shawn Healy sees this as an ongoing problem.

"We need some other people to step up," said Healy, disappointed with this effort after two narrow losses. "The other issue is we're just throwing the ball all over the gymnasium."

St. Francis actually turned Maine South over more, 14 turnovers to 12, but 2 came in the last 2:20 of the first half and St. Francis never again led.

"We have to clean up," said Coyle, a 6-6 junior who, like Palucki, helps handle the ball. "We're having way too many turnovers, missed free throws. Most of our games have been pretty close, and those little things come down to it."