St. Francis, Montini fall in CCL Tournament
St. Francis boys basketball coach Erin Dwyer has drawn a line in the sand. Ten turnovers or less.
The Spartans couldn't comply Saturday in the Chicago Catholic League Tournament at Montini in Lombard. The number was 21, and that helped translate to a 50-44 loss to No. 4 seed Leo.
"You have to give them credit," Dwyer said of Leo (18-6). "They're a very athletic, talented team, and when you have those kind of athletes on the floor it's easy for us to say, hey, 'Give it to this guy.' But their closing speed and their length is something you've got to adjust to - and you've got to adjust quicker."
Despite the disparity in record and seed No. 13 St. Francis (9-15) hassled the Lions into 19 turnovers themselves. Forward Andrew Harvey nabbed 4 steals to go with his team-high 15 points, matching Leo guard Mario Pittman's 4 steals plus a game-high 18 points.
St. Francis was always right there but at pivotal junctures Leo's defense capitalized in St. Francis' offensive half or by sending a second defender to trap a Spartan bringing the ball upcourt.
"The turnovers lead to higher-percentage shots," Dwyer said, explaining what happened early on when St. Francis led 7-4 then turned the ball over three of four possessions, resulting in a 10-0 Lions run.
Out of a 25-18 halftime deficit Harvey scored 5 quick points and Matt Cooney splashed a 3 for a 26-25 lead. Leo quickly forced 6 turnovers during a 7-0 run.
More of the same in the fourth quarter after another Cooney 3 brought St. Francis within 36-33 with 6:12 to play. Steals by Amir Holmes, DeSean Anderson and Pittman moved the Lions' lead to 42-33. St. Francis 3s by Harvey and Danny Blank could only keep pace.
Blank scored 11 points and Cooney had 10 for the Spartans.
"It was a close game the whole way through," Harvey said. "They're a good team, I think they were second in their conference on their side, so we knew it was going to be a challenge coming in. I thought we played pretty good, but we missed a lot of opportunities. We could have definitely won that game."
<h3 class="leadin">Providence-St. Mel 70, Montini 57:</h3>
Providence-St. Mel got aggressive on the backboards and accurate from the foul line to defeat host Montini 70-57 in the Chicago Catholic League Tournament in Lombard.
Headed by Jason Mason's 17 points and 11 rebounds and Ahmari Dantzler's 9 points and 14 rebounds the No. 15 seed Knights (5-16) piled up 48 rebounds, 15 offensive, and went 24 of 29 from the foul line to deal No. 17 seed Montini its 11th straight defeat.
"They've got to understand it's not all about scoring, it's about playing defense, it's about taking care of the basketball, it's about making right decisions at the right time, making free throws. The simple things, fundamental things," said Broncos coach Daryl Thomas, whose own high school coach, St. Joseph's Gene Pingatore, won his 1,000th game Saturday against St. Rita.
Montini (9-15) grabbed 34 rebounds as well in an often frenetically paced game. The Broncos did hit their free throws, 19 of 26, spaced mainly throughout the second through fourth quarters with Jayston Williams hitting 9 of 10 for the game and scoring 20 points.
St. Mel went 11 for 11 from the line in the second quarter to turn a 14-13 deficit after one quarter to a 40-31 halftime lead.
Montini, which got 9 points from Mychale Hyland, 8 from Matt Morrissey and solid play off the bench by Darrell Ramsey, made only 1 of 13 shot attempts in the third quarter, enabling the Knights to post a 50-38 lead entering the fourth.
The Broncos, lacking guard Anthony Thompson due to a death in his family, came within 53-43 on a three-point play by Scott West. St. Mel responded with a 3-fueled 13-0 run to build a 23-point lead with 3:49 remaining.
"We hit a really dry spot with (injured) RayJ (Dennis) out and now Anthony's out," Thomas said.