Boys basketball: Schaumburg pulls away from rival Conant in second half

There were a couple of other notable events that took place in the fall of 1970 in the Northwest Suburbs.

One of those was the late opening of Schaumburg High School that was delayed by nearly a month due to a construction workers strike.

The other was the move made by the 7-year-old Mid-Suburban League to go to a divisional format which placed the Saxons and the MSL member school from which its enrollment came mostly from, Conant, as members of the newly created MSL South Division.

It became an association for the two archrivals until the Mid-Suburban's next realignment in the summer of 1998 when they became paired together in the new MSL West Division.

It remained their divisional domicile until a new grouping took place this season that sent both schools to the newly reconfigured MSL East.

One thing that still remains the same is the intensity along with a raucous crowd. That was the case Friday night at Conant with a standing room only one as the visiting Saxons used a second-half surge en route to a 49-38 victory at Perry Gym in the division opener for both teams.

With Schaumburg (4-1, 1-0) ahead 16-13 at the start of the second half, senior forward Tony Horton got things with 6 of his game-high 18 points that included a three-point play that opened up a 22-14 advantage with 3:36 left in the period.

The Saxons lead stood at 30-21 entering the final frame when Horton's senior teammate Cam Anderson connected inside to make it 32-21 just 20 ticks into the quarter.

Conant (3-2, 0-1) slowly worked its way back into the contest as the second of junior Jacob Glowacki's 3-pointers brought them within 38-33 with 3:09 remaining until a trio of Horton free throws kick-started an 11-5 run that put the game on ice for Schaumburg.

Glowacki paced the Cougars with 11 points while Aiden Patterson added 12 for Schaumburg.

Saxons coach Jason Tucker took the opportunity to praise his Conant counterpart Greg Grana on his team's effort prior to lauding his squad's performance.

"I want to say that the hardest working team in this (league) is Conant,“ Tucker said. ”The phenomenal job that he's doing over here. He gets his kids to play so hard. We're so fortunate to come out of here with a win."