Schaumburg defense stifles Hoffman

Ball pressure, denying the ball and getting into passing lanes are the defensive principles Schaumburg prides itself on.

The Saxons' defense was right where it needed to be in a dominating first quarter as Schaumburg (6-2, 2-0) rode their defense to a 57-40 Mid-Suburban West victory at Hoffman Estates (3-4, 0-2).

"The way we play defense is as a unit," said Schaumburg senior Joe Faleni. "You can always rely on someone to help you if you get beat. It's all collective, which makes it a lot easier rather than looking at it as an individual matchup."

Schaumburg forced Hoffman into 8 turnovers and 7 missed shots before Brian Cvitkovich finally scored with 24 seconds left in the first quarter. By then, Christian Spandiary and Co., had already built a 13-point lead.

"Starting out cold like that didn't help us out," said Hoffman coach Luke Yanule. "We got good looks but we just didn't hit them."

Faleni (10 points) and Spandiary, who continued his torrid scoring stretch by putting in a team-high 20 points, each had steals which turned into layups in the first quarter as eight different Saxons recorded a steal throughout the game.

Austin Terry (game-high 22 points) scored the Hawks' first 11 points of the second quarter on a mix of jump shots and drives to the basket to close the gap to 19-13, but the Saxons maintained a comfortable lead the rest of the way.

"We were keeping our cool," Faleni said. "(Terry) can hit shots and he is a special player, but we had to keep doing what we do (on defense)."

"We did get off to a great start, and that certainly helped," said Schaumburg coach Matt Walsh. "But credit Hoffman. Their kids played really hard and were able to get themselves back into the game."

Darion Brown got a basket plus a foul to narrow Schaumburg's lead to 9 with 1:36 left in the third quarter but Hoffman scored only 5 points in the fourth quarter.

"I liked our character," Yanule said. "I thought we came back and showed a little something, but we are still building on little things."

Michael Mallet added 9 points for the Saxons. Brown had 7 points and 4 rebounds off the bench for the Hawks.

"We can always get up for this game because they're our cross-town rival," Faleni said. "It came down to, off the bat, we had more energy, and that helped us out in the long run because they made some runs."