Conant finds enough moves

Every time Conant appeared to have checkmate Prospect jumped back into their Mid-Suburban League boys basketball crossover Saturday night.

But after squandering three 12-point leads, the Cougars finally gained control of the scoreboard with a 62-54 victory at Perry Gymnasium in Hoffman Estates.

"It wasn't our smartest game," Conant senior swingman Tommy Sotos said after matching his season- and career-high with 21 points. "Coach (Tom McCormack) always says he wants to play chess, but we played a little bit of checkers tonight."

Sotos scored the first 11 points of a 13-0 run that gave Conant (4-1) a 19-7 lead 6:59 before halftime. He hit 2 of his four 3-pointers, a baseline drive for a 3-point play and a runner in a span of 1:44 to erase the last lead for Prospect (4-2) as it had a 4-game winning streak snapped.

Sotos' fourth 3 capped another personal 8-point burst in 3:12 to put the Cougars up 41-29.

"The guys I play summer ball with make fun of me … because I've always been able to score in bunches," said Sotos, who was 7-for-13 from the field. "I've wanted to start to score more consistently, too. But a lot of times you hit a few shots and they take you away."

But the Cougars had other options in Tony Rizzo (11 points), Jeff Keegan (9 points, 6 assists) and Chris Hoffman (8 points, 7 rebounds). Tom Mahr had a pair of rebound baskets to help thwart rallies.

"We need contributions from those people," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "Our level of execution and understanding is starting to get there."

Keegan and Cameron Leavitt helped shackle Prospect scoring leader Jeff Heiden to 8 of his 17-point average on 2-for-15 shooting from the field and 1-for-10 on 3s.

But Prospect's 6-foot-6 power towers of Kevin Reed (20 points, 6 rebounds) and Alex Toth (16 points, 11 rebounds) wouldn't let Conant break away from a 48-36 lead with 7:05 left.

Five straight points by Reed cut the deficit to 54-50 with 2:15 left. And Reed's layup with 31 seconds left off Heiden's feed cut it to 59-54.

Conant finally finished it off on Keegan's free throw and feed to Rizzo for a layup.

"It hurts because I thought we had opportunities, believed we had a shot and belonged in the game," said Prospect coach John Camardella after his team missed 12 layups. "I didn't think we executed down the stretch the way we needed."