Boys basketball: Baskin scores 27, leads Hoffman Estates to Maine East title

Torey Baskin was attacking.

The Hoffman Estates guard was fearless in driving to the basket Tuesday in Park Ridge.

Baskin delivered the Hawks 27 points to help Hoffman park its second consecutive Maine East Holiday Basketball Tournament title with a 51-43 win over Sandburg.

“It’s just my mindset to drive to the basket,” said Baskin, who was named the tournament MVP.

“It was just having a relentless mentality. My teammates trust me and they say to always go for the basket. I wanted to just keep attacking and knock these down.”

Hoffman Estates coach Peter McBride said Baskin’s play has been sparking the Hawks (12-2) all season.

“He is a special player,” McBride said. “And it is a luxury as a coach to knowing you have the best player on the floor. And that’s what he had to do and that was just make those plays.”

Baskin sparked Hoffman early. The Hawks scored the first seven points of the game as Baskin went long distance for a three and then drove for a basket. He would hit another layup as Hoffman opened up an 11-6 lead.

Sandburg (10-4) lost to Hoffman in last year’s final in an extremely contentious final where the police had to be called to remove unruly fans.

Trailing 16-6 after one quarter, the Eagles picked up their trapping defense. That, along with Sandburg’s physical play, slowly took its toll on Hoffman. The Eagles forced four turnovers in the second quarter as Hoffman’s lead dropped to 27-24 at the half.

Early in the third quarter, Sandburg kept up the pressure. The Eagles took their only lead of the game on a basket by Jonah Johnson (16 points) to make it 30-29 with 5:51 left in the third quarter.

Baskin drove the hoop on two consecutive possessions, drawing shooting fouls on each attempt. He drained three of four free throws, then added a basket, and he and Cam James each added two free throws as the Hoffman opened up a 38-30 lead with 3:46 left in the third.

“Coach has called on me to be physical and get to the boards,” said James, who would grab 11 rebounds to go with his 8 points.

“I was just trying to box out and get them out of the paint. During scout, we noticed they like to go to the offensive boards. So I was sweating them out of the paint.”

Sandburg would pull to within two on a pair of occasions. But each time the Hawks held them off.

When the Eagles cut the lead to 42-40 with 5:03 left, the Hawks’ Ramon Rosario hit a huge three-pointer. That ignited a 7-0 Hoffman run to make it 49-40 and Sandburg never got closer than six.

“We made a huge point of emphasis that we were going to need to take care of the ball in the second half if we were going to win this game,” said McBride, whose team only turned the ball over twice in the second half.

“I thought we did a really good job. I was really proud of how we handled ourselves.”

Tuesday’s championship game ended the 9-year tenure of the Maine East tournament. The administration has ended the tournament and will explore the possibility of its return in the future.

McBride said he is proud his team has won the last two tournaments,

“This is a great tournament with a lot of great opportunities,” McBride said. “It is great to see a wide variety of teams and styles of play. It prepares us well for the rest of the season.”

In the third place game, Maine East had a 10-point halftime lead and then held off a late charge from Carmel to win 60-57.

Albert Cooper, who had 4 three-pointers, led Maine East (10-4) with 18 points, while Josiah Oaxaca and Brandon Schreiber added 8 points. Carmel (6-8) was led by Drew Bance, who had 18 points, Jack Maloney with 11 points and Ethan Metz with 10 points.