Boys basketball: Schaumburg Christian falls in chance to win NAC title
After Schaumburg Christian dropped a five-point road loss in Arlington Heights Tuesday to archrival Christian Liberty it moved them back into a first-place tie with Westlake Christian in the Northeastern Athletic Conference boys hoops race with matching 7-2 league records.
Furthermore, it saw a trio of teams — Rockford Christian Life, Harvest-Westminster, and Kirkland Hiawatha — only a game and a half back in the standings at 5-3 making their Friday evening NAC bout against Rockford Christian Life a do-or-die scenario.
Either beat a Christian Life squad that they had beaten by 28 points last month at Hiawatha's New Year's Holiday Tournament a second time to clinch a share of the program's first NAC crown or lose control of their fate as Westlake (13-9) would get their shot at the title when it hosted Trinity Oaks Christian at their Grayslake campus on Monday.
As a result of a second-half shooting freeze, it saw that chance at conference championship fall by the wayside as it feel to the visitors from Rockford's East Side win 61-52 on their Life Center home court to fall 15-10 on the season and to 7-3 in their NAC finale leaving their title chances dependent on next week's Northeastern play.
After spotting the visiting Eagles (12-13, 6-3) a 10-0 lead to begin the contest, the Conquerors got things going thanks to reserve guard Tanmay Dundi. The sophomore connected for 8 of his 11 points as part of a 16-5 surge over the final 4:50 of the opening stanza that gave them a 16-15 lead after one.
Their lead would grow to 32-27 at half and stood at 37-33 thanks to steal, drive, and layup from junior guard Arnold Wicen at the 5:02 mark of the third. Then the Eagles went on another 10-0 run courtesy of guard Judah Rodriguez as a part of his game-high 25 points that put them ahead to stay 43-37 with 2:44 remaining in the period.
Christian Life would take a 50-45 advantage into the fourth and would be aided by second half shooting slump as Schaumburg Christian would go just 6-26 from the floor (23%) in the second half getting no closer than 59-52 on a three-point play from senior forward Nathan Peterson (team-high 17 points) with 3:26 remaining.
Eagles guard Drew Cater (12 points) and forward Caleb Staaland (10 points) also scored in double-figures for Christian Life while guards Tanish Dundi (9 points) and junior Cooper Smith (8 points) added in the Conqueror effort.
For Schaumburg Christian, rookie mentor Solomon Gustafson sought to not only console his players but to seek to reinstall their confidence to boot as they still have 4 games left in the regular season starting with a trip to Parkview Christian in Yorkville on Tuesday.
"The main talking point when we got into the locker room was that the job's not finished. We need to take this weekend and reevaluate, let our heads cool and come ready to work on Monday at practice," Gustafson said.
"I have no anxiety (and) no fear that they're not going to continue to bring it the rest of the season. They understand the assignment, they are selfless and want to play within the program that we've tried to build."