advertisement

Defensive focus helps St. Viator stop Highland Park

Despite its lofty record a year ago, St. Viator's boys basketball team struggled throughout the season on the defensive end.

This season, without quite the same offensive firepower as a year ago, St. Viator and new coach Quin Hayes have emphasized the importance of defense. And their lesson has seem to taken hold as the Lions held Highland Park scoreless for over 10 minutes in the first half and came up with a huge stop at the end as the Lions held off the Giants 48-46 Friday in Arlington Heights.

The victory put St. Viator in the driver's seat to capture the 38th annual Joe Majkowski St. Viator varsity basketball tournament.

"We played excellent defense in the first half," Hayes said. "We were talking and rotating and doing what we were supposed to do. And we were knocking down some shots on the offensive end."

Playing before members of the 2009-2010 sectional championship team that was seated right before the bench, St. Viator (3-0) used that defense to open up a 13-2 advantage with 5:46 left in the first half.

With Patrick McNamara and Kevin Monson bombing away against the Highland Park zone, the Lions converted 6 of their first 10 three-point attempts as they built an impressive 22-7 lead with 2:44 left in the first half.

"I was missing shots on Wednesday and my teammates picked me up," said McNamara, who finished with a game-high 19 points, converting 5 three-pointers. "I knew we were playing a zone team tonight and I was going to have to get hot. My teammates were finding me and I was getting some really good looks."

McNamara's 3 early in the third quarter gave the Lions their biggest lead at 29-12. That's when Highland Park (2-1), which had been stymied offensively, began to find its mark.

Trailing 31-18, Highland Park ran off 14 unanswered points to take 32-31 lead with 1:03 left in the third quarter.

"We got comfortable and relaxed a bit in the second half," Hayes said. "And when you relax against a good team like Highland Park, they are going to fight back and get themselves back in the game."

St. Viator answered with Nick Ferrante hitting a couple of layups and McNamara a pair of free throws as the Lions opened up a 37-32 lead with 5:23 to play. The Lions continued to stay on top as McNamara hit his final 3-pointer with 1:40 to play to make it 44-37.

Despite Monson hitting 4 free throws down the stretch, Highland Park was still able to close to 48-46 with 3.5 seconds to play on a layup by David Sachs. After a timeout by the Giants, St. Viator was whistled for an offensive foul on the ensuing inbounds play.

Highland Park had a chance to tie, and the Giants' Luke Norcia attempted a reverse layup at the buzzer. The Lions' Sal Cannella switched off his opponent and slid to the basket, going up with Norcia and just getting a finger on the ball and deflecting it enough to have it roll off the rim.

"I got a fingertip on it," said Cannella, who rolled his ankle on the play. "I just wasn't going to let them score."

Monson and Cannella each had 8 points for the Lions while Ferrante had 6 points. Sachs and Norcia led Highland Park with 15 points each.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.