Boys basketball notes: Pagliocca joins Stevenson’s 1,000-point club

Stevenson senior Rocco Pagliocca made some history recently.

Pagliocca drained a buzzer-beating 3 to end the first quarter in a nonconference game against Metea Valley to become the eighth player in Stevenson boys basketball history to score 1,000 career points.

“All his teammates mobbed him at half court. It was a really cool moment,” Stevenson coach Will Benson said.

Pagliocca will be honored Friday when Stevenson hosts Libertyville in a key North Suburban Conference matchup in Lincolnshire.

Stevenson started the week 15-5 overall and 4-2 in NSC action — winners of 4 games in a row. The Patriots hold recent wins over Zion, a pair of wins at the Wheaton Warrenville South Martin Luther King shootout against Downers Grove North (47-46) and Metea Valley (61-58) and a win Monday against Oak Park-River Forest (69-64).

Donny Williams leads the team in scoring at 17.8 points per game, while Pagliocca is at 15.2. Aidan Albrecht averages 7 rebounds, while Quinton Frakes is at 5.5 rebounds. Williams averages 3 assists and 2 steals, while Pagliocca is at 1.5 steals.

Williams, in particular, has been shooting the ball well lately, Benson noted. In his last 4 games, he scored 26 against Zion, 20 against Downers North, a career-high 32 against Metea and 27 points against Oak Park.

Benson also likes the way sophomore Max Dabbs has been playing more consistently the last couple weeks off the bench, and also lauded Karthik Krishnarajah, a senior, and junior Kavin Patel for their efforts coming off the bench.

Wauconda update: Another Lake County team with the white-hot hand is Wauconda, which started the week on a 6-game tear that boosted it to 14-5 overall and 6-0 in Northern Lake County conference action.

The Bulldogs are 6-1 since the Wheeling Hardwood Classic over the Christmas break.

Coach Ty Weidner noted several reasons for the team’s recent dominant play. Since the Wheeling tournament, the Bulldogs are getting to the foul line 17.6 times per game and making, on average, 14 throws a game, “which might be the best clip as a team in my 19 years here at Wauconda,” he said.

There’s more. Wauconda averages 30 points in the paint a game, which is nearly half the team’s 68-point-per-game output, Weidner pointed out. “Those 2 stats alone show me we are not settling for 3s nearly as much as we did to start the season,” he said.

The Bulldogs also sport a 1.41 assists-to-turnovers ratio and are turning it over a tick under 10 times a game. “We are taking much better care of the ball,” Weidner said.

Weidner said junior Leo Brinias has stated to heat up of late. Since the Christmas tournament, Brinias is averaging 12.3 points, while leading the team in assists and steals. He also leads the team in assists-to-turnover ratio at a robust 3.43 per game.

“We have been making a conscious effort to find Leo in transition and make the extra pass,” Weidner explained. “Also, something that our program values is assists-to-turnover ratio and he is our team leader in that category.”

Senior Sebastian Klein also has been a key contributor off the bench. “Sebastian changes the game defensively for us with his length and athletic ability playing up top of our matchup zone,” Weidner said. “The thing he does, doesn’t show up in the box score, but he changes the game and allows our wings to be more aggressive.”

Alex Ortega leads Wauconda in scoring at 17.3 points (3.7 assists, 2.4 rebounds, 2 steals), while Tony Salemi is at 16.3 points (5.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 2.2 steals, 1 block) and Austin Carlsen averages 13.6 points and team-highs 7.4 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game (3.1 assists, 1.7 steals). Brinias is at 9 points and team-highs 3.8 assists and 2.8 steals (3.1 rebounds) and Cole Plucinski is at 6 points. 4.2 rebounds, 2 assists and 1.3 steals.

“We are looking forward to the second half of the season with some great games still to be played in the conference,” Weidner said.

Antioch update: During a recent 5-game stretch, senior Chance Parsons led Antioch in scoring and rebounding, averaging 12 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Looking at that same time frame, Cooper Marabella shot 55% from the floor and made 100% of his free throws.

Freshman Miles Marabella came off the bench last week and turned in a strong effort, averaging 8 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists for the Sequoits (4-14, 1-5 Northern Lake County Conference), who have won as many games in the last 2 weeks as they did in the first month and a half of the season, coach Sean Connor pointed out. Antioch is 2-3 since the break.

Grayslake Central update: The Rams have gone 11-3 since starting the season 2-3 and sat at 13-6 overall and 5-1 in Northern Lake County play to start the week.

Central lost a close game on the road to league-leader Wauconda recently but came back to record back-to-back nonconference wins against Libertyville and Fenton.

“We have a tough group that is committed to the defensive end,” Central coach Brian Centella said.

Cole Halverson, Alex Granville and Carson Woods are all averaging in double figures for the Rams, while Cordell Johnson leads the team in rebounding.

“Cordell Johnson has been playing very well,” Centella said. “He controls the paint inside and is a very smart and physical player.”

Central also is receiving a nice bump off the bench from Owen Perz. “He can play the 4 or the 5 and provides offensive spacing with his shooting ability,” Centella said.

Grant update: Coach Wayne Bosworth noted the Bulldogs (6-9, 2-3 Northern Lake County) have their sights set on a strong finish to the season. He added Grant has lost 5 games by single digits, including a pair of extra-session setbacks in the last month.

“We are just beginning to get everyone healthy since mid-December,” he said. “We are looking to finish strong.”

Damarrion Smith leads Grant in scoring at 13 points per game and assists (3 per game), while Jayden Smith is the team’s leading rebounder at 6.5 per contest. Jayden Smith is shooting 57% from the field. “Jayden does a great job in his role on the team and it shows with his field-goal percentage,” Bosworth said.

Noah Zequeida was cited for strong play off the Grant bench. “Normally, he’s our seventh man, but has been in the sixth-man spot for the past month and brings a spark and energy on defense whenever he’s in the game and takes what the defense gives him offensively,” Bosworth said.

Lakes update: Also of note lately is Lakes, which came charging out of the holiday beak and posted a 5-0 mark to move to 11-7 overall. The Eagles are in the thick of the Northern Lake County race at 5-1.

Lakes recently won its own Martin Luther King tournament by beating Fremd in the title game and Deerfield in the semifinals. The Eagles also scored NLCC wins against North Chicago, Antioch and Grant.

Ben Newcomb leads Lakes in scoring at 17 points per game, while Dorial Pullen averages 7 assists and Aidan Hopkins averages 6 rebounds. Carter Martin is shooting 43% from 3 on 46 makes. He’s also averaging 15 points per game and was named to the Lakes MLK all-tournament team.

Staying with the 3-point theme, coach Chris Snyder noted Lakes has 6 games with 10 or more made 3s, including the draining of 15 against Crystal Lake South and 12 against Fremd.

Also of chief help for Lakes has been Clayton Barker off the bench. Snyder calls Barker a “glue guy.” Barker had 9 points against Grant and 7 against Fremd.

“Clayton is always ready to play,” Snyder said. “He’s been great of the bench. Clayton is a guy who will do anything we need and will mix it up with the big guys inside even though he might not be as tall.”

Libertyville update: The Wildcats started the week 9-7 overall and 3-2 in North Suburban action. Libertyville lost to state-ranked Warren 65-48 recently.

“The guys played a great game against Warren,” Libertyville coach Brian Zyrkowski said. “We were down by 6 at the half and 8 with 4 minutes to go in the game. I was proud of our team’s effort.”

Senior Bryce Wegrzyn is averaging 22.8 points a game and is nearly at a double-double for the season thanks to his 9.4 rebounds per game. Sophomore Nick Baker averages 10.4 points and 3 assists and is shooting a strong 35% from 3.

Senior Nick Farmakis comes off the bench, “giving us a huge spark on the defensive end,” Zyrkowski pointed out. “He has the task of covering the other team’s best player.”

Mundelein update: The Mustangs (5-17, 1-5 North Suburban) dropped ballgames recently to ranked squads in Hersey, Warren and Waukegan.

Sophomore Brandon Newell leads the team in scoring, while sophomore Reyes Zepeda is tops in rebounding. Junior Carson Koenigsknect has shot the ball well from 3 all season, JV coach Matt Bellito noted.

Bellito added Mundelein has been availed off the bench by the likes of sophomore Jack Maresh, who has shot the ball well; junior Will Passolt, who has played solid defense and has rebounded the ball; and junior Brady Koenigsknect, who comes in and spelled at the point guard position for some quality minutes, Bellito said.

Round Lake update: The Panthers (7-9, 0-5 Northern Lake County) defeated Elgin last week 68-45 and dropped an NSC game to North Chicago (66-53).

Coach Jack Hansa explained the Panthers have been hit by the injury bug the past few weeks and Tony Thomson and Lewis McGregor have been there to help pick up the slack. “Guys giving us big minutes that do not show up on the stat sheet,” he said.

Jaquan Jamerson leads Round Lake in scoring (15 points per game) and steals (3 per game), while DJ Billups is tops in rebounding (8 per game) and Devin Powell leads the team in assists (4 per game). Ryder Haynes, Hansa added, has stepped up since an injury to Billups last week and averaged 12 points on 67% shooting from the floor.

Vernon Hills update: The Cougars split a pair of recent games with Niles West (45-40 win in Central Suburban North play) and Hoffman Estates (60-58 nonconference loss) to sit at 13-7 overall and 5-1 in CSL North action.

Daniel Odhiambo, who returned recently from an injury suffered at the Maine East tournament over the holidays, leads Vernon Hills in scoring at 15.6 points per game, while Brady Larsen is at 13.1 points and Jeremy Zamost averages 12.8 points.

Coach Matt McCarty noted Graham Lis hit two big 3s against Hoffman Estates on Monday and had a good look to tie the ballgame that rattled in and out at the buzzer. Lis ended the Maine East tournament by hitting four 3s in a game against Morton.

Senior Hudson Self “is the player for us who comes off the bench to give us energy on the defensive end,” McCarty explained. “He loves the role of guarding our opponents’ best player. He is also our leader in taking charges. He is all about team winning. That is the only thing that matters to him. The positive vibes he brings to the team at practice sets the tone every day.”

McCarty noted the Cougars have a stretch coming up where they play 6 games in a row on the road. “We are looking forward to the challenge that it will present,” he said.

Warren update: The state-ranked Blue Devils continue to roll along, winners of 14 games in a row to start the week and 5-0 since the holidays with a 3 North Suburban wins and 2 nonconference victories. Coach Zack Ryan’s group was 16-1 overall and 6-0 in NSC action to begin the week.

Jaxson Davis leads the county in scoring at 26 points per game, while also leading Warren in rebounding (6.1 per game) and assists (5.5). Javin Griffin is shooting 48.1% from 3, while Joel Paasch is at 41.4 percent from 3.

Ryan noted LeBron Massey continues to give Warren great energy off the bench, “especially offensive and defensive rebounding,” he said.