Westmont can't keep up with ICCP
Each team owned a half of Monday's Class 2A Lisle boys basketball regional quarterfinal, and IC Catholic Prep's half got the Knights a 52-34 victory over Westmont.
Next up for the Knights (14-13), seeded third in the regional, is a 7:30 p.m. semifinal contest Tuesday against second-seeded Aurora Christian.
After trailing 22-15 at halftime, ICCP shot 7 of 15 from the field en route to an 18-2 scoring advantage in the third quarter and outscored the sixth-seeded Sentinels (9-19) 37-12 for the second half.
"We made some adjustments at halftime and we sped up the pace," said Knights coach T.J. Tyrell. "We wanted our defense to create for our offense. (The Sentinels) didn't get into a rhythm and that came from our press coming out of the half."
ICCP began to pull away with 2:48 left in the third quarter. Troy Burrows, who led his team with 12 points, sank two free throws. That started an 11-0 run that was completed with buckets from Connor Youngman, Austin Reed, Will Lyles and Angel Ramirez, with the last two coming off turnovers, and a free throw by Youngman.
That helped the Knights lead 33-24 at the end of 24 minutes. Lyles was the other Knight scoring in double digits with 11.
Jordan Rowell made good on a three-point play a minute into the final quarter, putting his team up by double digits, 36-24, and ICCP led by a double-digit advantage the rest of the way.
Westmont committed 10 turnovers in that crucial third quarter, and coach Craig Etherirdge said that was the Sentinels' biggest problem.
"We did a good job protecting the basketball and keeping them in a half-court set during the first half," he said. "We allowed them to run a little and once they changed the tempo we could not keep up."
The Sentinels did own the first half, leading 17-11 after the first quarter on 50 percent shooting from the field. Senior Jack Rebellato sank three 3-pointers in the first eight minutes and finished with 11 points for the quarter and 14 for the game, leading the Sentinels.
Junior Kyle Domin, who missed the first 20 games after hand surgery due to a football injury, grabbed 7 rebounds and scored 4 points in the first as well. He finished with 18 rebounds.
The Knights lost to Aurora Christian 64-56 on Jan. 27 in Elmhurst in the teams' only meeting so far.
"The key is controlling their outside shooters, and they are a very good transition team," Tyrell said.