Maine South holds off Schurz
Guards here, guards there.
Guards galore.
Schurz transported its guard-heavy boys basketball team - no fewer than 13 of the Bulldogs' 15 members are listed as guards - to Wilmette for a Class 4A Loyola Academy regional semifinal against Maine South on Wednesday night.
"Never seen that many on one team," said Maine South junior Sean Gallery, a 6-foot-3 guard who's taller than four of Schurz's starters and as tall as senior starting forward D.J. Hardy.
"Crazy," he added.
The Hawks' third quarter, in their 59-51 victory?
Crazy good.
Down 26-18 at the half, Maine South got a 3-pointer from senior guard Casey Clark in the first minute of the third quarter and closed the frame on a blistering 18-2 run to take a 39-32 lead.
The Hawks edged the ninth-seeded Bulldogs 20-19 in the final eight minutes to escape against a club they had defeated by 21 points in January.
The win advanced eighth-seeded Maine South to the regional final against top-seeded Loyola Academy (28-4) Friday at 7 p.m.
"That's a very good team, with a bunch of slashers," Maine South coach Tony Lavorato said of the energetic foe from Chicago. "It's a well-coached team, too. Third quarter, I was proud of the way we played, the way we finished.
"I was also proud of the adversity our kids overcame."
Gallery, as tough and as resilient as hoopsters come, struck for 8 of his team-high 21 points in the crucial third stanza. He fearlessly drove the lane at the slightest opening and absorbed some hard fouls. Gallery, often but briefly, was artwork on hardwood throughout the night.
"Always bounces back up," Lavorato said. "That's what makes Sean a special player."
Maine South's big men - primarily 6-5 junior forward Marko Anderson (17 points, 11 rebounds) and 6-7 senior forward Nick Ostojic (7 points, 12 rebounds) - hustled in transition and got rewarded with spot-on passes that turned into easy buckets in the third quarter.
Anderson dished an assist on an Ostojic basket at 5:21; Ostojic returned the favor on an Anderson field goal a little more than 2 minutes later.
"We didn't get the ball to (Anderson and Ostojic) enough in the first half," admitted Lavorato, whose squad tallied by only 2 points in the final 6:32 of the first quarter and yielded a second-quarter-ending 10-2 burst to the Bulldogs. "I liked the way (Anderson and Ostojic) shared the ball after halftime, as we played the way we like to play.
"I like who we are now. We'll be up for the challenge against Loyola Academy."
Schurz (21-11) fell behind 41-32 early in the fourth quarter but trailed only 54-48 with 1:16 remaining. Maine South poured in 14 of its 20 fourth-quarter points from the free-throw line.
Maine South's Clark finished with 10 points. His trio of freebies in the final 31 seconds stretched the advantage to 58-51.
Senior guard Louis Abraham led Schurz with 21 points, including 10 in the final quarter.