Maher, Maine South put clamps on Glenbrook North
It didn't matter to Maine South senior Pat Maher that the plays weren't entirely designed for him in the early going Friday night.
All that mattered to Maher was that he finished his opportunity.
Maher scored the first 8 points of the game for the third-seeded Hawks and finished with 10 as Maine South hung on to edge Glenbrook North 43-41 to capture the Class 4A Niles West sectional title.
The Hawks captured their first sectional crown since 1999 and just the third in school history before a packed house in Skokie.
The Hawks (28-5) will face defending Class 4A champion and Proviso East sectional winner Whitney Young, which beat Foreman 65-60, at the UIC supersectional Tuesday at 8 p.m.
"We knew tonight we were not going to have the best players on the floor," said Maine South coach Tony Lavorato Jr. "But we knew that we would come out and have the best team on the floor and that's how we win games."
The Hawks' precision passing game and stingy defense kept the Spartans (24-6) off guard most of the night. Defensively, South held the Spartans to just 13 field goals on 43 attempts.
"There just weren't any easy looks at the basket for us at all tonight," said Spartans senior Alex Dragicevich. "It was interesting the way that (Maine South) played defense. They schemed against us very well tonight."
The Notre Dame-bound Dragicevich and fellow senior Austin Weber were held in check for the most part by Maher and the Hawks' defense. Dragicevich led all scorers with 21 points, but needed 17 shots to do it. Weber was shut down by the Hawks, attempting just 8 shots and scoring only 4 points.
"We really took and keyed on those two tonight," Maher said. "We put in extra effort to make sure we kept them in check and to not let either one of them get a good or easy look."
The Hawks looked like they would pull away to start the fourth quarter. A bucket by Justin Tworek, who led the Hawks with 16 points, gave South its biggest lead of the night at 35-26 with 5:58 to play. But Dragicevich and the Spartans never gave up.
Scoring all but 4 of his team's points in the fourth quarter, Dragicevich pulled the Spartans to 36-33 with 2:32 to go. The Hawks responded like they had all night, and this time it was Matt Palucki, who was plagued by foul trouble all game.
He converted a 3-point play with 1:21 to play to all but ice the Hawks' win.
"For us to take and execute against a great program like Glenbrook North and against a great coach like Coach Weber is just a tribute to our kids and the way they played tonight," Lavorato Jr. said.