Maine South sacks Libertyville at Maine West
On the eve of the Class 7A football state championship game, Libertyville was seeking another title.
The boys basketball team, minus football players Ben Kimpler and Joe Hohner, took the court in the Maine West Thanksgiving Classic. The Wildcats couldn't keep pace with Maine South, however, losing 60-41 in Des Plaines on Friday.
Drew Peterson led Libertyville (2-1) with 11 points. Paul Steinhaus added eight, while Jabari Quigley and Cameron Chen each chipped in seven. The Wildcats wrap up the tournament Saturday against Chicago Math & Science Academy. With the football team kicking off at 4 p.m., the tipoff was moved up to12:15 p.m.
Maine South improved to 3-0.
"They're a tremendous team and they play hard," Libertyville coach Brent Mork said of the Hawks. "They just seem to come up with all the loose balls. We're a young team and trying to mesh together. We don't have a lot of kids that have played meaningful varsity minutes. We're just doing whatever we can to grow as a team. Hopefully, as the season progresses, we can get better and better."
The Wildcats trailed Maine South 10-9 a minute into the second quarter after Quigley canned a jump shot. But Maine South scored 16 unanswered points, capped by Tommy Digan's steal and layup for a 26-9 lead with 2:48 remaining.
"I think we just let it get into our heads," Steinhaus said. "We got down a little bit and put our heads down. We just got a little sloppy with the ball and that caused a lot of turnovers. It was a big run, but we played pretty well in the second half of the quarter."
Libertyville responded with an 8-0 run, with a Peterson basket pulling the Wildcats within 26-17 at halftime.
Libertyville trimmed its deficit to 39-32 on a couple of Drew Fortini free throws with 2:02 left in the third quarter. But the Hawks took a 42-32 lead into the fourth and kept building the advantage.
Jon Arenas led Maine South with a game-high 18 points and 7 rebounds, 6-foot-11 Brad Perry added 14 points and 11 boards, and Milos Ljiljak chipped in 12 points.
"This was a very solid team to play in Libertyville," Maine South coach Tony Lavorato Jr. said. "I've been in the position of the (Libertyville) coach, missing guys. Once he gets his baseline guys back, they will be a totally different team. The first two games, (Libertyville) scored 75 percent of their points in the lane. They have some really good shooters, I thought we were able to stop them from getting into the lane and taking angles on the passes a little bit to get some deflections."