Lisle's Palicka celebrates a very happy birthday
Having played a monster basketball game and with victory at hand, Phil Palicka took the bench to the strains of "Happy Birthday" sung by the Lisle student section.
Palicka celebrated his big day Tuesday with 25 points and 15 rebounds crazy numbers amazingly equaled by teammate Chris Wray plus the added maturity of an 18-year-old.
"I tried to come out with a good mentality," said Palicka, and the mental frame was indeed a factor in the Lions' 68-45 win over Chicago Richards in a Class 2A Lisle regional quarterfinal.
No. 4 seed Lisle (9-19) roared to a 28-15 second-quarter lead only to see No. 5 Richards (5-18) pull within 41-36 late in the third.
It was gut-check time. Lisle passed.
"Usually when things get tenuous or tough, we might have a little bit of self doubt. We got beyond that," said Lisle coach Mark LaScala, who gets 15-13 top-seeded Westmont in Wednesday's 6 p.m. semifinal.
"While it wasn't easy we didn't expect it to be I was proud of the way the guys responded after that," he said.
The 6-foot-6 Wray and 6-4 Palicka did dominate the boards and scoreboard flashing the middle of Richards' zone defense or in a high-low combo.
Kyle Frazier and Kazim Khan also helped spark Lisle's 14-2 run spanning the third and fourth quarters as the Lions reassumed control.
Point guard Anthony Vacco did the job as well. Richards' frenetic quickness forced 23 turnovers, but few resulted in easy baskets. Vacco and off-guard Curt Walker rarely had their pocket picked.
"Our guards would do a good job of breaking the press and they'd get us the ball in positions where we had good, open drives to the basket or places where we could get open shots," Wray said. "Really, the guards breaking the press was the key to us winning that game."
Richards, led by Greg Kent with 23 points, did itself no favors by converting only 17 of 72 shot attempts, just 24 percent.
The short-but-agile Angels grabbed an outstanding 23 offensive rebounds, but Palicka, Wray and Khan rose to the occasion in the fourth quarter when Lisle snagged 9 offensive boards and 18 overall.
"They were very athletic, so I tried to match their athleticism," Palicka said. "Transition defense, transition offense, just tried to match up with them and we ended up executing a lot better than them."