York bounces back as Rolling Meadows' struggle continues

York boys basketball coach Vince Doran said his team was excited to play Rolling Meadows on Wednesday night, Day 3 of the Ed Molitor Thanksgiving tournament.

"The kids were motivated," said Doran, "especially because of the way they played in the second half against Deerfield."

Doran was referring to Tuesday night's contest at the tourney in Palatine, where the Dukes fell to the Warriors by 10.

Wednesday there was no such letdown as York controlled the game from start to finish in a 68-50 win over the Mustangs.

"We were moving the ball today," said Dukes 6-5 senior forward Patrick Grabowski, "hitting our open shots, and playing solid 'D'."

Jack Morrissey led York with 15 points, while Jared Murphy scored 15 for Meadows.

Mustangs coach Kevin Katovich said that once again turnovers were the downfall for his team, which fell to 0-3 in the tournament and on the season.

"We keep shooting ourselves in the foot," said Katovich. "We had some careless turnovers tonight, but a lot of that was due to really good York defense. I'm certainly disappointed with the way we've played so far this year."

York ran out to a quick 12-2 lead in the first quarter, but after a timeout, the Mustangs quickly got right back in the game.

Murphy hit a 3-pointer then junior Jack Schoessling made a couple of free throws to bring Meadows to within 24-19 early in the second stanza.

"Schoessling and Murphy and both really good players," said Doran. "Meadows is a scary team to play. They're going to win a lot of games this year."

The game turned quickly from a close affair to a runaway in a one minute span in the beginning of the second half.

Meadows trailed only by 9 at that point, but a 20-2 run by York broke the contest open.

First, York junior Jack Julian nailed a long 3, then Morrissey followed that up with a couple steals and coast-to-coast layups.

After that, the rout was on as Nick Trapani (9 points), Julian (8) and the rest of the Dukes were able to stop Meadows from mounting any type of a serious rally.

"We were just getting into the flow of the game," said Grabowski. "We were bringing the energy and running our sets. At this time of the year it's all about continuing to improve."

Schoessling scored 7 of his 13 points in the final period, but it wasn't enough to prevent York from improving to 2-1 on the year.

"We were playing well early, but we weren't able to make any type of a run," said Katovich. "The turnovers have killed us in all three games so far this season."

Rich George, Angelo Martucci and Nick Kosich each pitched on with 7 points for York, while Matt Wojcik scored 8 for Meadows.

Murphy added 7 rebounds to go along with his team-high point total.

"We've got to get back after it in practice," said Katovich of trying reduce the Mustangs errors. "We'll watch some film and try to work our way out of this."