McDonald, Spandiary help Schaumburg hang on

Schaumburg has lost a few games this season where the Saxons held a late lead but faltered at the end.

On Thursday night, the Saxons were able to turn the tables in a come-from-behind 48-42 victory over visiting Fremd in the Mid-Suburban League West.

“I feel that we’ve been playing good basketball, but things just haven’t been going our way,” said Saxons coach Matt Walsh. “We’ve had some frustrating losses, including a couple in overtime, but I’m extremely proud of our guys tonight. They made some big plays down the stretch.”

Javon McDonald and Christian Spandiary led the Saxons (3-5, 1-1) with 15 points apiece.

The Vikings (4-3, 1-1), who went 0-fer from 3-point range, got 13 points from Zach Monaghan and 8 points each from Ken Leonard and Jim Scharfe.

“Turnovers were a huge difference tonight,” said Vikings coach Bob Widlowski. “We had 14 in the first half alone, and we haven’t been throwing the ball around like that all season.

“Schaumburg played well on defense tonight and they executed on offense as well. We had some good looks but we were not shooting the ball well.”

The score stood 38-38 midway through the fourth quarter when Spandiary and McDonald took charge.

Spandiary, a 6-foot-3 junior forward, hit a driving layup, was fouled and made the free throw to give the Saxons a 3-point lead.

McDonald made 3 clutch free throws in the final minute to extend the lead, then 6-5 center Jimmy Lundquist (6 points, 9 rebounds) nailed 2 foul shots with 18 seconds left to put the game out of reach.

The Saxons were victorious despite playing without starting guard Kyle Bolger, who missed the contest after being involved in an auto accident. Walsh said Bolger “would be OK.”

“I thought our defense was very consistent all night,” said the Saxons coach. “We did give them some points in the first half with some turnovers, but once we got them in a half-court game we did a nice job.

“We hang our hats on our defensive play, but in order for us to get to the next level we’ve got to improve our offensive execution.”