Wheeling starts tourney out in style

Wheeling seniors Chris McClellan and Alex Chery wanted to make something perfectly clear to all in attendance Wednesday afternoon.

While their school was indeed playing host to the 30th annual Wheeling Hardwood Classic, the Wildcats basketball team were not going to be handing out victories.

Thanks to McClellan's precise passing and Chery's athleticism, Wheeling rolled over the Streamwood Sabres with a 79-45 first-round victory.

"Coach (Lou) Wool was talking about us being the dark horse in our own tournament," Chery said. "After a tough loss to Hersey on Friday night, we needed to go out stronger today."

Wheeling (5-6) advanced to the winners bracket in its tourney for the first time since 1998 and plays at 7:15 p.m. today against Stevenson (8-3), a 55-43 winner over Maine West.

Starting the game with two crowd-pleasing dunks en route to a double-double of 24 points, 12 rebounds, Chery executed his coach's orders to perfection.

McClellan, who added 18 points and 8 rebounds, was in perfect position minutes later to toss up a perfect alley-oop to Chery for one of his 5 assists.

"(McClellan and Chery) enjoy playing together," Wool said. "They've played ball all summer together. It's a real luxury having those two guys on our team."

Wheeling junior James Kurtz who chipped in with 12 points, has transitioned quite well from football season, as he effectively ran the Wheeling offense when McClellan was off the court.

Streamwood, despite trailing the entire contest, kept the Wildcats on their toes, thanks in large part to the hard-nosed effort of junior guard Tem Esikiel, who scored a team-high 22 points.

"We wanted to come out in the first quarter with intensity and win the ball game," Esikiel said. "We came out calm and that's not good."

Streamwood plays Maine West at 12:15 p.m. today.

With a 62-36 lead after the third quarter, Wool was able to rest many of his starters in the fourth, giving Wheeling a chance to show off its depth.

Senior Matt Claver, who has battled back from a brain tumor, delighted the crowd by as he knocked down a pair of 3-point baskets in the fourth for his first varsity points.

In all, the Wildcats had nine players contributing to the scoring effort.

Prospect 57, Carmel 36: Carmel kept trying to get the ball inside to 6-foot-6 junior center Jack Baucus in Wednesday night's game against Prospect at the 30th annual Wheeling Wildcat Hardwood Classic.

The strategy worked for awhile, but once Baucus went to the bench with early foul trouble, it was all Knights.

Prospect defeated Carmel 57-36 behind another outstanding game from 6-foot-6 junior forward Kevin Reed.

The line on Reed: 18 points, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks, 4 steals and 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

"Kevin again," said Prospect coach John Camardella. "He played another excellent game, and Jeff Heiden had four 3s, so our inside-out game was working."

Heiden finished with 12 points for the Knights (7-5), who play again at 8:45 p.m. today against North Chicago (8-1), a 69-44 winner over Lake Park.

Joe LaTulip and Alex Toth each scored 7 points while Nick Carlson contributed with 3 points and 6 boards.

Baucus picked up his second foul early in the second quarter with the game still close. Then Prospect went on a run and when Reed completed a 3-point play after a nice assist from Heiden, the Knights were up 25-8.

"We knew Baucus is a ton," said Camardella. "He's a big kid, but we defended him well."

Prospect extended the lead in the third quarter. When Jason Leblebijian hit a 3 the Knights (7-5) opened a 33-13 advantage and all but put away the game.

Baucus scored 8 points for Carmel (2-11), which plays Lake Park at 2 p.m., as did classmate Tim Sachs.

Sophomore sub Jonathan Heisel added 8 for the Corsairs, including 7 in the fourth quarter.

"We did play well," said Camardella. "That's three in a row. We've just got to limit some of our turnovers.

"I think we went about a 3½-minute stretch where we didn't score."

-- Bill Esbrook

Stevenson 55, Maine W. 43: This time, Stevenson managed to capitalize on a dominant quarter of defense.

Less than a week ago, the Patriots held Mundelein scoreless in the first quarter of a North Suburban Lake game but wound up losing.

On Wednesday, Stevenson used a stingy defensive effort in the third quarter to put away Maine West in the first round of the 30th annual Wheeling Wildcat Hardwood Classic 55-43.

The Patriots (8-3) who found success pressing the Warriors (2-10) and held them to just 3 points in the third quarter.

"We knew they weren't the best ballhandlers, so going into this game, we knew we were going to press the whole time and we just picked it up in the third quarter. We got a bunch of turnovers," said Stevenson forward Dylan Richter, who pumped in a game-high 23 points. "It worked out real well."

So did Richter inside.

He was strong and active in the lane, especially in the first half when he netted 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting and grabbed 3 offensive rebounds.

"We like to have a strong inside force because if you have that, the guards work better ... everything works better," said the 6-foot-3 Richter, who recently committed to play basketball at Division III Washington University in St. Louis. "I try to get inside, get some rebounds and try to be big inside, even though I'm kind of undersized. But it still works out."

And it all worked out for the Patriots despite the abbreviated presence of standout guard Kevin Stineman. He had just 4 points on the night.

Stineman sat the entire first half and the first minute of the second half for what coach Pat Ambrose called "team issues."

"Everyone knew that with Kevin out we would all have to step up our games until he got into the game in the second half," said Richter, one of Stineman's closest friends. "That's what we did."

Stevenson was up by only 1 point at the end of the first quarter and 26-20, but then went on an 8-0 run to start the third quarter.

A Jimmy Orlowski 3-pointer broke up the Patriots' party, but that's all the scoring Maine West would get until the fourth quarter.

"They were really getting on Adis (Kadiric), our other leading scorer, and me and they took us both out of the game," said Orlowski, who finished with a team-high 10 points. "The third quarter was really horrible for our team.

"It was tough to get anything going, and our team struggles with the press. We'll get it, but we don't have it yet. It's just not clicking for us. It's just a bad feeling."

Guard Jeffrey Levitt was Stevenson's next leading scorer. He finished with 8 points on two 3-pointers. Alex Seiler came off the bench for Maine West to score 9 points on three 3s.

"I wouldn't say I was completely happy with our defense right now because I thought we had some breakdowns," Ambrose said. "But we had a lot of bright spots, too.

"I've got to look at the glass as half full. We're just looking to fill it more."

-- Patricia Babcock McGraw

Libertyville 60, St. Viator 49: The Libertyville basketball team came into Wednesday's first-round match against St. Viator in the 30th annual Wheeling Hardwood Classic with one goal in mind: advance to the winners' bracket.

Using quickness in the transition game to complement the inside play of 6-foot-6 junior Jeremy Letchford, the Wildcats cruised to victory over the Lions 60-49 and did just that.

While Libertyville certainly wanted to win Wednesday to advance in the tournament, coach Scott Bogumil laughingly explained the other reason his team hoped to pick up the win.

"I told the kids that if they lost, our next game would be at 9 a.m.," Bogumil said smiling. "They would have had to been at school at 6 a.m. to shoot around so our goal was to not have to do that."

The Wildcats made sure from the get-go that they would not be waking up before sunrise on Thursday as they never trailed in the contest. They'll play at 5:30 p.m. against Naperville Central, a 43-31 winner over Niles North.

With the help of senior guard Joey Aiello, who scored a team-high 16 points, Letchford was able to dominate off the give-and-go early, scoring 13 of his 15 points in the first half.

The Wildcats went on a 14-0 run in the second quarter to take a comfortable 28-11 lead.

"We've been working on (passing the ball inside) during practice," Letchford said. "It helps because (Aiello) is a great shooter and it allows us to the play the in and out game real well."

Trailing by 12 at half, St. Viator (3-6) brought the game within 6 points, thanks to the outside shooting of junior guard Bryce Hensley.

Hensley, who led the Lions in scoring with 15 points, connected on three 3-point baskets, and provided a much-needed offensive spark for the struggling Lions.

"We're struggling scoring so having a guy like (Hensley) helps," Viator coach Joe Majkowski said. "(Hensley) was big off the bench today."

The Lions would get no closer, however, and return at 9 a.m. to face Niles North. Libertyville won't have any early wakeup calls.

"This is a well-coached tournament and our goal every year is to get in the winner's bracket and play at night," Bogumil said. "That's our mindset and we need to take it one day at a time."

-- Dan Hyman

Other games

Rob Belcore scored 17 points as two-time defending champion Loyola rolled past Vernon Hills 56-23.

• Shawn Wallace (16 points), Billy Hughes (14 points) and Zach Abraham (12 points on four 3s) led Notre Dame in a 68-41 romp past Deerfield.

• Drew Crawford's 23 points and 10 rebounds led Naperville Central past Niles North 43-31.

• Kentrall Wilson scored a team-high 15 points for North Chicago in a 69-44 rout of Lake Park.