Spandiary pours in 40 for Schaumburg

To say Schaumburg senior forward Christian Spandiary had a career night would be putting it mildly.

Spandiary connected on 11 of 14 field goal attempts, including 4 three pointers, to go with 14 of 15 free throws in scoring a career high 40 points Tuesday night. That sparked the third-seeded Saxons to a 72-57 over 15th seed Proviso West at the Class 4A Glenbard West boys basketball regional semifinals in Glen Ellyn.

Schaumburg (22-5) will try for its third straight regional title at 7:30 p.m. Friday against the winner of tonight’s Conant-Glenbard West semifinal.

“We were feeling it tonight,” said Spandiary. “It doesn’t matter who scores the points. We just know how to win as a team. The defense was key for us. We had to stop their transition game and for them to try to beat us with their half court offense.”

Spandiary’s career-high was 31 points on Dec. 2 against Fremd. He scored 28 in the Mid-Suburban League title game victory last Wednesday.

“Christian was awesome tonight, “ said Saxons coach Matt Walsh. “He’s really a total player. He can score in a variety of ways. He’s an excellent shooter, he takes the ball to the hole and he rebounds.

“His biggest improvement has been his leadership skills. Christian is very unselfish and he cares about his teammates.”

The Panthers (11-16) were intent to make a game of it as they trailed 19-16 after one quarter.

The Saxons’ defense went to work in the second quarter, forcing 5 turnovers and turning those miscues into 8 points.

Spandiary, who scored 22 points in the first half, tossed in 9 second-quarter points to help the Saxons extend a 19-18 lead to 35-22 at halftime.

The Saxons held Proviso West without a field goal for the final 6:38 of the half and allowed just 2 free throws during that span.

“The second quarter was key,” Walsh said after their 13th win in their last 14 games. “It started with the defense. That gave us our spark.”

After three quarters Schaumburg led 55-37. Michael Mallett scored 14 points and grabbed 9 rebounds and Jimmy Lundquist added 7 points and 5 rebounds.

The Saxons also welcomed back junior point guard Kyle Bolger, who had not played since Feb. 10 with a shoulder injury.

“It was good to see Kyle out there,” said Walsh. “He handled the ball well and did some good things.”

Proviso West was led by Domincik Roby with 17 points and 6 rebounds. Taylor Watkins added 11 points.