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Deerfield overtakes Rolling Meadows in season opener at Palatine

Rolling Meadows' boys basketball team was hoping hot 3-point shooting would carry it to victory Monday at the Ed Molitor Thanksgiving tournament.

Unfortunately for the Mustangs, they went cold down the stretch.

Meadows could muster only 3 points in the final 3:36 and had a couple of costly turnovers as Deerfield overtook them for a 55-50 win in Palatine.

Junior Jack Schoessling had seven 3s and a game high 23 points, but it wasn't enough as Jordan Baum of the Warriors took over at the end.

Baum went off for 23 points as well and his free throw shooting in the final minute proved to be the difference.

"We were excited to come out and play tonight," said Mustangs junior Marco Taibi. "We've just got to play smarter."

The teams mostly traded baskets in the first quarter before Meadows connected on 6-of-7 from behind the arc in the second to forge a 27-26 lead.

"We shot the ball very well," said Meadows coach Kevin Katovich. "Just too many turnovers tonight. We were careless - we've got to take better care of the basketball."

Deerfield took the lead late in the third quarter in a back-and-forth affair, but Schoessling led the Mustangs into a 36-36 tie when he stole the ball in the backcourt, dribbled the length of floor and made a sweet feed to Luka Pavlakis for a layup.

Meadows (0-1) trailed by 4 to open the final eight minutes, but a quick 3 from Schoessling , a 6-foot guard, got them right back into the game.

The Mustangs were down 49-47 with 1:06 remaining when junior forward Jared Murphy drove the lane for a layup, was fouled and sank the foul shot to complete the 3-point play and give Meadows a 50-49 lead.

Two free throws by Baum moments later gave the advantage back to the Warriors. Meadows had a couple more chances as the clock wound down but a missed layup and a key turnover, a steal by Baum, let the game slip away.

Four more free throws by Baum sealed the victory for Deerfield, who attempted 17 foul shots compared to just 5 for the Mustangs.

"We had some options (at the end)," said Katovich. "We were running set plays, but obviously it didn't work out."

Murphy scored 10 points while classmate Taibi pitched in with 6.

Aleks Subotin fnished with 4 points and 8 rebounds for Meadows.

"We've got a couple of other guys on this team who can score," said Katovich, "and we've got to get them involved. As I said we had too many turnovers, but that's something to be expected in the first game of the season.

"It's a long season, but we've got a plan in place. We've just got to stick to the process and play better."

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