Strong start sends Schaumburg past Hoffman

Schaumburg followed a familiar script by breaking out to a big early lead for the second time this season on Hoffman Estates.

But this time the Saxons couldn’t break away as they had to work into the final minutes for a 50-41 Mid-Suburban West boys basketball victory Friday night over the visiting Hawks.

“I think Hoffman had a lot to do with that,” said Schaumburg coach Matt Walsh after his team scored the first 8 points en route to a 16-3 lead after a quarter. “Their program has a lot of pride and I thought they played very hard.

“Fortunately for us we were able to get off to a good start.”

Javon McDonald scored 8 of his 20 points and in the first quarter and Christian Spandiary had 9 of his 16 in the first 8:40 for the Saxons (8-8, 4-2). They hit 7 of their first 15 shots and led 19-5 on Spandiary’s 3.

“That set the tone throughout the whole game,” said Spandiary, who also had 7 rebounds of Schaumburg’s 28-25 advantage.

The last time the Saxons rolled to a 54-30 victory on Dec. 17. Hoffman (4-13, 0-6) wasn’t going to let that happen again despite 13 of its 22 turnovers in the first half.

Austin Terry had 13 points and 10 rebounds and Matt Pahl scored 8 points after missing 10 games with a torn tendon in his right foot. Consecutive layup assists from Mark Roberts to Eric Saubert and Alex Bonds got the Hawks within 38-30 with 5:11 to play.

“If you take away the first six minutes of the game we played pretty darn good, but you have to play a full game,” said Hoffman coach Bill Wandro, whose team shot 10-for-20 from the field after halftime. “I give our guys a lot of praise. They got stunned early and really fought back and regrouped.”

Schaumburg had to fight through making just 5 of its last 26 shots after its hot start. It scored its last 14 points on free throws with McDonald hitting 9 of 10 in the final 4:51 to keep Hoffman from getting closer than the final score.

“It’s defense and rebounding,” Spandiary said of the Saxons’ second straight win. “Against Barrington (64-39 loss) we got outrebounded by a lot but the last two games we’ve rebounded.”