Defense gets Warren going against Maine West
The central focus all season for Warren's boys basketball team has been defense.
That priority sure came in handy on Monday, as the Blue Devils dealt with a loud playoff atmosphere early on before taking control the rest of the way.
Twelfth-seeded Warren rolled past No. 21 seed Maine West 68-35 in the quarterfinals of the Class 4A Notre Dame regional in Niles on Tuesday night. In the other game at the site, No. 12 Libertyville charged past No. 20 seed Waukegan 77-57.
The Blue Devils (15-14) have showed character down the stretch, and recent successes despite a tough series of opponents can be traced back to that defense.
"It looked like we settled in, and it looked like our guys were playing in their first big game," Warren coach Ryan Webber said. "We got a little shell-shocked when we came out. Once we settled down, we had to keep ourselves composed. Once our shots started to fall, we had a chance to feed off of our defense, and it was good."
Maine West (6-21) got off to a quick start and opened a 13-4 lead on a 3 from Julian Dones (9 points) with 1:34 left in the first quarter.
Warren still trailed 13-7 heading into the second quarter and went down 15-7 when Maine West's Marion Johnson hit a short jump shot 17 seconds in.
The Blue Devils went on to score the next 15 points, as full-court pressure forced the Warriors into six straight turnovers. Warren's Jovan Jokic scored 9 of his 14 points in the spurt as the Devils led 22-15 with two minutes left in the first half on the way to a 27-19 halftime lead.
"I think our defense starts everything with us," Webber said. "Once our intensity level and activity gets going, we can go on runs like that. It depends how hard we can play."
Jake Falish added to the intensity by hitting three treys and scoring 11 of his game-high 19 points in the third quarter as the Blue Devils took command with a 24-8 scoring advantage in the period. Caleb Reams contributed 4 of his 7 steals in the third quarter on his way to finishing with 10 points and 8 rebounds.
"Firing the 3 is one of my strengths," Falish said. "My teammates were telling me to keep shooting the ball - then I started to hit my shot.
"That's what we hang our hat on, our defense. We really work on that a lot in practice."
Maine West, a young team, just couldn't find a way to recover against Warren.
"We got outplayed from the middle of the second quarter on," Maine West coach John Bongiorno said. "We didn't execute what we wanted to execute. (Warren) got on a roll and we played into it. We did prepare for it, but we're not a pressing team and it showed with our lack of experience."
Senior guard Matt Acevedo led the Warriors with 10 points and 7 rebounds.
Warren next meets No. 6 seed Deerfield in a regional semifinal at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
• Libertyville scored the first nine 9 and put 31 points on the board in the first quarter.
Jack Steinhaus led the Wildcats (15-12) with 20 points, Jake Mansfield added 17, and Joe Borcia chipped in with 12 and 8 boards.
"You just got to get by," Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. "We got the job done. (Waukegan) does compete very hard. We just have to regroup for the next one."
The Wildcats led 47-23 at the half before the Bulldogs (6-24) made a run at them late in the third quarter to cut it to 60-43. Waukegan made one more push early in the fourth but couldn't get the deficit under double digits.
Carson Newsome led the Bulldogs with 16 points and 6 rebounds off the bench.
Libertyville next meet No. 4 seed Notre Dame at 7 p.m. Tuesday.