West Chicago gets everyone involved
When Dean Pauley knocked down a 3-pointer in the waning minutes Saturday night — his first points of the season — it put a nice cap on what might have been a rough weekend for West Chicago’s boys basketball team.
The Wildcats used a third-quarter blitz to topple Addison Trail 59-37 in a nonconference game in West Chicago. The dominant win helped ease the sting of a 24-point DuPage Valley Conference loss the night before.
“Everybody contributed, and that’s pretty cool when everybody can get in and play,” said Wildcats coach Kevin Baldus. “When you’ve got kids that don’t get in the newspaper and kids come off the bench, it’s not easy for them. Just to get them in and have them make a couple shots, especially near the end when Dean hit that 3. I’m proud of them.”
Even though West Chicago (6-16) quickly snagged an 11-2 lead, short-handed Addison Trail (7-15) stayed close and pulled within 25-24 on the third of Varinder Kalsi’s 3-pointers midway through the third quarter.
The Wildcats took off from there. They rolled off 15 straight points including 10 by Justin Mundt, who scored a game-high 15 points.
Addison Trail, playing without leading scorer James Pupillo due to injury, committed 6 turnovers during the key stretch as the deficit ballooned to 42-24. Jordan Garcia finally stopped the bleeding with a bucket at the buzzer to end the period.
“We only had 11 guys to begin with and with James being down, we’re down to 10,” said Blazers coach Brendan Lyons. “And we lose Tyler (Little) and we’re down to nine. I had confidence in the other guys to play, but at the same time, when James has been out we’ve struggled to put the ball in the basket.”
Thirteen players scored for West Chicago, including JaJuan Cosby, who came off the bench to knock down three 3-pointers and score 13 points. Kalsi’s 9 points were backed by 8 points apiece from the Blazers’ Garcia and Vince Beltrano.
“After a tough game like last night the first thing you want to do is get back on the floor for a back-to-back,” Mundt said. “It’s kind of like an NBA schedule with three games a week so it’s nice to get everybody contributing. We’ve got a deep team. When we send five in and five out, those kids can play.”