Immaculate Conception cramps Lisle's style

Triangle-and-two or box-and-one, defense comes easier when your opponent lacks a good shooter.

Lisle's Chris Wray played only sporadic seconds after a calf injury early in the first quarter, allowing Immaculate Conception more elbow room in a 51-39 Knights nonconference victory on Wednesday in Lisle.

"I don't know what he did to his leg, but he was never the same after that," Immaculate Conception coach Darren Howard said of the 6-foot-6 Wray, a nearly 15-point scorer who managed but one shot.

"That helped us out quite a bit, too, because it takes another big kid out of the middle," Howard said. "We struggled rebounding early, did a much better job in the second half without him on the floor, which definitely helped. We got a break tonight."

Lisle's Kyle Frazier contributed early, Kazim Khan later and 6-4 Phil Palicka throughout, but the Lions can't truly roar without Wray.

"A couple of us players had to step up tonight and it didn't really turn out well," Khan said.

Opening in a box-and-one against Wray then a triangle-and-two on Palicka and a secondary scorer of Immaculate Conception's choosing, defenders Brian Harvey and Demetrius Mobley helped hold the fort until the Knights (7-10) exploded late offensively.

"We kept switching off on their two best players," said Harvey, who usually guarded Palicka. "We just tried to stop them."

Khan scored 15 points, Palicka 14 with 10 rebounds, but Lisle (5-10) sank only 16 of 56 shots while IC made a cool 21 of 38.

"Instead of them taking away your first and second option they were taking away your second and third," said Lisle coach Mark LaScala. "The first option was on the bench with a leg cramp."

IC led 36-33 entering the fourth quarter. A 12-4 run gained separation. Charlie Pulkowski laid in a basket, and Anthony Loss converted one of his several drives down an open lane.

Khan countered with a basket, but Mobley finished hard and scored again off a smart John Cheng pass for a 46-37 Knights lead with 4:32 to play.

Loss, who scored 11 points to Mobley's game-high 16, hit 2 free throws. They were answered quickly by Lisle's Dylan Sinn, but the Lions didn't score thereafter as IC won its second straight game after nine consecutive losses.

"We had to come out and really bring the fire on defense, and that's what made the difference for us these last two games," Loss said.