Conant makes quick about-face with victory over St. Patrick
Conant's boys basketball team needed a quick turnaround game after last Friday's disappointing loss at Fremd.
The Cougars came through with a 48-41 win over St. Patrick in a nonconference game Tuesday night in Hoffman Estates.
"We needed a good bounce-back win like this for our confidence," said Conant guard Brandon Vinson. "After Friday's loss all the guards met and we talked about helping out Jimmy (Sotos) more on offense. We were able to get the ball into our big men and that made a difference. We had some really good contributions from them."
Sophomore forward Ryan Davis led Conant with 17 points and 7 rebounds. Chima Oduocha came off the bench to score 6 points and 6 rebounds. Mike Downing added 4 points.
Vinson, who scored 13 points, sparked a Cougars run midway in the the third quarter that proved to be the difference.
The Shamrocks (13-11) led 23-22 at the halftime break with Keishun Thomas (15 points) scoring 9 points in the first half to keep St. Patrick afloat.
Sean Ek's basket with 4:44 left in the third quarter was their last lead a 28-26.
Vinson connected on a pair of 3-points baskets within :25 to give the Cougars the lead for good at 32-28 with 3:06 remaining.
"I just had some real good confidence in hitting those two 3-point baskets," said Vinson.
That started a 17-3 run that carried over to the fourth quarter, and Conant led 43-30 after 2 Davis free throws with 4:35 left in the game.
Sotos scored 6 points contributed 3 assists in the run, two of them to Oduocha for Conants final two baskets of the third quarter, and to Davis, who converted on a 3-point play early in the fourth quarter.
"I know they were keying on me," said Sotos. "Their coach (Mike Bailey) was constantly telling their guards to cover me. But it doesn't matter what I do on the floor so long as we win. If I'm not scoring I look for other ways like finding open me or coming up with steals.
"We were upset after our loss on Friday. We wanted to come out and play strong against the next team we played."
"I thought the difference was on the boards," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "I like the way we came out in the second half. We limited them most of the time to just one shot. They played a really good 2-3 zone and the first half was like cat and mouse. But our guards were ale to work the ball inside and that was the difference.
"We got some put-backs from Davis and the other inside men contributed. We needed a win like this over a good quality program."
Conant out-rebounded the Shamrocks 21-10.
The Cougars saw Sotos leave the game with 5:04 left in the game after his assist to Ryan with a mild sprained right ankle. But he came back in the game two minutes later.
"After I dished off the ball to Ryan I stepped on another players foot," said Sotos. "I'll be ready for Friday."
Laurence Merritt added 11 for St. Patrick, which hosts St. Viator on Friday night, while Conant travels to Hoffman Estates to play the Hawks in a key Mid-Suburban West contest.