Warren nets victory over Waukegan

A new coach, a new system and your new star is suspended. Not exactly an ideal opening-night scenario.

But Waukegan nearly found a way to pull out the win against Warren on Wednesday at the 20th Annual Thanksgiving Basketball Tournament at Fremd High School.

With the Bulldogs down 48-47 with 6.1 seconds remaining, sophomore Mike Springs sped past Warren's Brandon Paul at the right elbow only to have his lay up attempt miss its mark. Colin Nickerson could not convert the put-back effort at the buzzer.

"I saw that (Paul's) feet were wrong and I attacked that weak foot," said Springs, who finished with a team-high 14 points. "I got to the hole but I just couldn't finish."

Yet first-year head coach Ron Ashlaw had nothing but praise for his lightning-quick floor general and the rest of his new squad.

"We've had two weeks of practice in a new way of doing things against arguably one of the best coaches in the state whose program is as bedrock-solid as any around," said Ashlaw, who replaces interim coach Al Rogers. "I feel very proud of our guys."

If introducing themselves to a new coach, and vice versa, wasn't challenging enough, the Bulldogs found out last Saturday that sophomore transfer and Illinois recruit Jereme Richmond would be sidelined three games due to, what Ashlaw referred to as, "a violation of team athletic department code of conduct."

"It's been difficult because we've been practicing with him all year," Springs said. "But everything is going to be good."

Paul, an Illinois recruit who gave Bruce Weber an oral commitment last month, was also admittedly disappointed when he heard the news of Richmond's benching.

"I was really looking forward to playing against him in this game," Paul said.

Whatever the disappointment, Warren coach Chuck Ramsey was not thrilled with the way his team handled the ball in the first half, as it committed 11 of its 20 turnovers.

"These really were a lot of careless turnovers, turnovers playing without purpose," Ramsey said.

But with the 6-foot-6 Richmond sidelined, the Blue Devils (1-0) took control of the paint, winning the rebounding battle 42-24. Junior Jake Anderson (8 points) led Warren with 12 rebounds and senior Scott Geske (6 points) pulled down 9.

"Our rebounding stats are a little inflated by the fact that we got rebounds when we missed easy shots that we should have just made," Ramsey said. "It's tainted in a way."

The same cannot be said for Paul, who proved in the second half why he's one of the top juniors in the state. With Warren up 32-31 in the third quarter, Paul scored 10 of the Blue Devil's next 14 points, including a baseline jam off an outstanding high-low pass from Geske.

"It was kind of an up-and-down game but (Paul) made some big plays," Ramsey said.

Ashlaw is hoping for the same from his crew this season, although with Wednesday an example, there will be some growing pains.

"We've just asked our guys for unconditional buy-in to what we do, and that's what they did tonight," he said. "We became a team tonight."

Bartlett 75, Fremd 45: Maybe the best thing about Bartlett's 75-45 season-opening victory Wednesday night over Fremd was that both teams expect to get better.

A lot better.

Bartlett's first eight players in its rotation were all underclassmen as were six of Fremd's first eight. And it was a competitive game into the third quarter when the Hawks used a 13-6 run to close the period and open a 50-34 lead that would never be less than double-figures again.

The Hawks blew it open on the perimeter shooting of junior forward Cory Hrynyk and the hustle at both ends by Derrick Coleman off the bench. They had already established control under the basket at both ends on the strength of their Air Force-wingspan like zone and full-court pressure thanks to the height of Hrynyk (6-foot-5), junior center Kamil Janton (6-9) and junior forward Mike Selvaggi (6-4).

Complement that with the quickness of sophomore guards Frankie Cleope and Luke Labedski, who combined for 21 points, and you've got a formula for a blanketing defense and a rebounding machine.

Head coach Jim Wolfsmith still had worries about his young team though before its first game in the 20th annual Fremd Thanksgiving Tournament.

"I was kind of nervous. Fremd made us work," he said. "We definitely got after it tonight. We want to hold everyone to about 50."

"Our defense was awesome," said high scorer Hrynyk (19 points). "All week we worked on it. We pressured the ball."

Fremd committed 18 turnovers and shot just 18-of-51.

Hrynik's 19 points included fluidly hitting 5 of 6 three-point attempts.

"Cory's such an athletic big man," said Wolfsmith.

Equally young Fremd didn't take advantage of its opportunities and finally wore down against the taller Hawks. The Vikings hung around on the inside play of sophomore forwards Charlie Rosenberg and high-scorer (11 points) Chris Klimek. But with Janton and Co. blocking 5 shots and altering many others, Fremd's shooting percentage kept dwindling.

The Vikings kept having to find creative ways to score, including guard Doug Bruno's literal seat-of-the-pants, on-the-floor flip-in after a loose-ball scramble during the third quarter. And junior guard Tim Kubis gave the Vikes a lift when he came off the bench. But it wasn't enough.

"Our concern is defensively, we left too many shooters open too many times," said coach Bob Widlowski. He's hoping for a much better effort Friday against Waukegan at 6 p.m. after Bartlett tangles with talented Warren at 4:30. Warren edged Waukegan last night.

"That was the first varsity experience for a lot of those guys," Widlowski noted of his young team.

-- Howard Schlossberg