Harlan denies St. Charles East's comeback attempt
St. Charles East didn't get off to great start against Harlan on Tuesday in the 36th Jack Tosh Holiday tournament, falling behind right from the opening tip and trailing by 11 points at halftime.
But led by senior Drew Vazquez, who scored 9 of his team-high 13 points in the third quarter, the Saints made it a one-possession game late in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately for St. Charles East, a couple of untimely turnovers against the Falcons pressure defense and poor 3-point shooting were too much to overcome as the Saints lost 56-41.
The Saints (3-8) will conclude the tournament at noon today in the 15th-place game against St. Francis.
"We worked really hard to get the lead down to three with plenty of time on the clock and we had the ball," said St. Charles East coach Brian Clodi. "We called a set play, we didn't execute and we turned the ball over, the next possession we took a bad shot and all of a sudden it got away from us and we couldn't battle back from there. We had expended so much energy fighting those guys to get back in the game. We made our run and it came to that moment where we needed to make a play and we didn't."
Several times in the game St. Charles East battled back to within one score but every time the Falcons (8-7) had an answer. In the second quarter, a Spencer Motley 3-pointer cut the lead to 17-16 after the Falcons had jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game. Shaquille Hines answered with 8 points for Harlan, who ended the second quarter with a 12-2 run and pushed the lead to 29-18 at halftime.
In the third quarter, after another slow start to the quarter, Vazquez and Zack Burns shot the Saints back into the game, scoring 9 and 4 points, respectively. Sophomore Charlie Fisher hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to single digits with just under a minute to play in the quarter and when Vazquez added a 3-pointer at the buzzer the Harlan lead was down to 41-36 entering the fourth quarter.
Fisher knocked down consecutive jumpers and Vazquez split a pair of free throws to put the score at 44-41 with just under 5 minutes remaining in the game and the Falcons seemed rattled and turned the ball over to the Saints. However, St. Charles East would not be able to take advantage of the turnover, in fact, the Saints would not score another point in the game as the Falcons closed the game with a 12-0 run.
Romane Hunter converted a couple of key turnovers into points late in the game on his way to a game-high 18 points that closed the door on the Saints.
"Harlan is really athletic, they play good defense," said Clodi. "They forced nine second half turnovers, our team is learning that every possession matters, we have to run our offense and take care of the basketball. But I'm proud, the kids fought back, they gave us a chance to win in the fourth quarter and that is always the goal."