Kukoc, Highland Park corral Carmel

Carmel Catholic's boys basketball team wanted to keep the score low in its opening-round game of Class 4A postseason play on Monday night in Deerfield.

And the Corsairs had the game right where they wanted for about a half - until Highland Park's Penn-bound senior Marin Kukoc got hot and scored a game-high 21 points, all in the second half.

Carmel, a No. 18 seed, couldn't stay with No. 15 Highland Park the rest of the way and lost 61-40.

The Giants (17-10) next take on the second-seeded Warriors on Tuesday at Deerfield.

Carmel (10-17) got off to a good start and held a 13-10 advantage thanks in large part to Douglas Meyer (9 points) who dropped in one of his three treys to beat the buzzer at the end of the first quarter.

"We played real well and were right in the game," Carmel coach John Ryan said. "Kukoc had no points, and we had an excellent first half."

The Corsairs stayed right with the Giants and trailed 25-23 starting the second half. Carmel scored the first 5 points as Jim Hendricks (5 points) scored on a layup, making the score 28-26 with 5:48 left.

But Kukoc took over for the Giants and hit back-to-back 3s. Highland Park went on to score 18 unanswered points in an 18-2 run and led 44-30 going into the final quarter.

"We played together defensively,but it got away from us in the third quarter," Ryan said. "It was a big-time second half for Kukoc.

"We also turned the ball over too much with our young guards and (Highland Park) out rebounded us."

Carmel couldn't find a way to recover in the final quarter.

Jonathan Huisel led the Corsairs with 12 points.

"Carmel did a great job early getting the ball to the post against our zone," Highland Park coach Paul Harris said. "Carmel did a nice job executing at the beginning and ending of quarters. They had an early lead on us - maybe it was nerves and we had to settle down. It happened again, early second half. We settled down and got back to work. That's what we do best."

Carmel's win total increased to 10 this season.

"We're still happy with our season," said Ryan, who'd been trying to help the school break an 18-year run of losing records at the varsity level. "You need to take baby steps. Last year we got started. We wanted to get double-digit wins this year and got it. Now we want to go for a winning season. We got a lot of young players who got experience this year that will be back and help us out for the future."