St. Edward holds off ICCP again
IC Catholic Prep closed the gap in Thursday's Metro Suburban West boys basketball game in Elgin, but the end result against St. Edward and sophomore guard Kelvin Cortez-Harvey was the same as in late December.
Playing the second of a possible four meetings this season between the MSC-West rivals, St. Edward held off the short-handed Knights 41-38 as Cortez-Harvey scored all 12 of his points in the second half, including 6 in the final 2:14.
It was the second straight win for St. Edward (15-3, 5-1) over ICCP (8-8, 1-5), which lost its fifth straight overall. The Green Wave defeated the Knights 58-41 on Dec. 30 in the title game of the Westmont/ICCP Christmas Tournament, led by 21 points from Cortez-Harvey.
"Harvey's been a thorn in our side," ICCP coach TJ Tyrell said. "He's a nice player."
St. Edward led 30-29 entering the fourth quarter and expanded its lead to 35-29 as senior guard Joe French sank 2 free throws before he drained a 3-pointer with 5:48 left.
The Knights - playing without 6-foot-5 junior forward Rhashaun Epting, who served the first game of a 2-game suspension - kept it close, thanks to junior Troy Burrows' game-high 19 points. The 5-foot-11 junior guard canned a baseline jumpshot with 1:07 remaining to draw ICCP within 38-35, and he split 2 free throws with 21 seconds to play to make it a 2-point game.
Cortez-Harvey was then sent to the free-throw line and made his first attempt with 16.3 seconds on the clock to give St. Edward a 39-36 lead. But his second attempt was waived off by the officials when one of his teammates was ruled to have moved toward the lane after the official had given Cortez-Harvey the ball.
With a chance to tie, ICCP inbounded to Burrows at the arc but his contested 3-pointer fell shy of the mark. Cortez-Harvey was again fouled and sank both free throws with seconds remaining to make it a 5-point game. ICCP junior Will Lyles scored a layup at the buzzer for the final margin.
The MSC-West win keeps St. Edward within a game of first-place Riverside-Brookfield (15-1, 6-0).
"We really build confidence with every win," French said, "so beating (ICCP) two times already is making us more confident."
Without Epting the Knights played mostly zone defense against the Green Wave and held them to 36-percent shooting (14 of 39). But the Knights didn't fare much better against St. Edward's defense, which relied more heavily on man-to-man. ICCP shot 15 of 40 from the field (37.5 percent).
"We wanted to come out and slow them down because the last time we played man and they got off to a really hot start," Burrows said. "We wanted to close out on their shooters and really work on keeping it compact in the paint and closing out."
ICCP led 7-6 after a quarter, but St. Edward's 9-1 run midway through the second quarter staked it to a 17-14 halftime lead.
The Knights led 26-23 midway through the third quarter when junior Garrett Cheng scored a tough bucket off glass in transition, but Cortez-Harvey answered with a 3-pointer to tie it and the Wave grabbed a 30-29 lead through three periods.
Lyles finished with 13 points and 6 rebounds for ICCP, which next hosts St. Laurence in a nonconference game on Tuesday.
Nick Duffy tied Cortez-Harvey for team honors with 12 points to go with 6 rebounds, and French finished with 11 points for St. Edward, which next plays at Ridgewood on Friday, Jan. 23.