Lions fall short to ESCC power St. Joseph

Generating offense under the basket didn't come easy for the St. Viator boys basketball team on Tuesday night, kicking off East Suburban Catholic Conference play with a 63-55 loss to St. Joseph at Cahill Gym in Arlington Heights.

With a height disadvantage working against them, the Lions relied heavily on their outside shooters. The Chargers took full advantage of 6-foot-8 senior center Louis Green, who shut down the lane and forced the Lions to dribble themselves into trouble.

"We were giving too many offensive possessions away with turnovers or just what we think are not good shot decisions," Viator coach Joe Majkowski said.

The Lions defense had its share of struggles in the first half, and the 10-point halftime deficit was too much to overcome. Junior forward Brendan King hit a 3-pointer just more than a minute into the fourth quarter to bring Viator within 5 points, but that was as close as the Lions would get.

"I think we could have played better," Majkowski said. "We felt like defensively, especially in the first half, we didn't do some of the things we wanted to."

Viator (3-1) was able to correct that problem - if only temporarily - by surrendering just 8 points in the third quarter. The Chargers turned the ball over five times in that quarter alone, but Viator was only able to convert those turnovers into 3 points.

"St. Joe's is a good team, but it's always disappointing when you don't get the win," King said. "This will bring us down after our 3-0 start. At 3-1 now we have to get back to work."

King (16 points) shined all night on offense, shooting 6-of-9 with four 3-pointers.

"I struggled the first three games and I didn't hit a 3," King said. "When you get it going it feels nice."

Other key Lions offensive contributors were juniors Richard McLoughlin (11 points, 5 rebounds) and Alan Aboona (11 points, 3 rebounds).