Shooting touch settles it for Schaumburg
Schaumburg went outside to get back inside and post a 63-50 over Rolling Meadows on Saturday in a Mid-Suburban League boys basketball crossover game in Schaumburg.
“I thought our kids responded well after a tough last-second-shot loss last night,” Schaumburg coach Matt Walsh said. “Our kids played real hard.
“We shoot the ball well. We are a confident team shooting the ball. We feel we have a strong inside presence as well.”
Schaumburg hit 5 three-pointers in the first half. And when Rolling Meadows looked to defend against them, the Saxons’ Johnnie Flynn (18 points, 7W rebounds), Brendan Parker ( 11 points, 6 rebounds) and Josh Rahn ( 16 points, 9 rebounds) were able to work the paint to their advantage.
“We are always looking to attack inside-out,” Flynn said. “We got some good ball reversals and that helped a lot.”
“Last night was a tough loss,” Rahn said. “We wanted to come out and set a tempo and get the ball down low.”
Both teams, which struggled offensively on Friday, looked to change that in the first half when Schaumburg led 30-26.
Schaumburg zeroed in from the 3-point line to build that lead, scoring half of their points. The Saxons hit on 5 three-pointers shooting 5-of-10 from outside the arc in the first half.
Meadows was able to stay close thanks to the play of Matt Wojcik, who scored 7 of his 12 points in the first half, and Emmanuel Lopez, who came off the bench to score all 7 of his points.
Meadows was able to close to 32-30 with 5:42 left in the third quarter on a basket by Pat Kramp (12 points).
But Schaumburg turned up the defensive pressure from there. The Saxons forced 5 turnovers while Meadows missed its final 7 shots.
“We take pride in playing defense,” Walsh said. “We certainly have a lot of room for improvement. But I though we played well in spurts.”
Meanwhile on the offensive end, Schaumburg continued its onslaught from the 3-point line. Triples by Bryce Carlson ( 9 points) and Parker highlighted an 11-0 run to close out the quarter with the Saxons leading 43-30.
“Coming into the game we thought attack the basket,” said Parker, who had two threes. “We were hitting some shots.”
Schaumburg extended its lead to 49-35 with 4:43 left on a pair of free throws by Rahn.
Meadows then began to heat up. The Mustangs took better care of the ball and converted their shots, going on a 13-4 run to pull to 53-48 with 1:50 to play on 3-pointer by Kramp.
That was as close as the Mustangs would get, with Rahm hitting 4 free throws and Flynn a pair of layups.