St. Viator wills its way past Nazareth
There are many different ways to win and lose basketball games.
For some teams, it's simply a matter of having the will to win.
The St. Viator boys basketball team had precisely that Friday night at Cahill Gymnasium in Arlington Heights.
The Lions held off several surges from Nazareth to pull out a 61-58 victory over the Roadrunners in East Suburban Catholic play.
St. Viator never trailed in the contest.
“Hitting 10 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter was a good thing,”said St. Viator coach Quin Hayes. “It's a war in the ESCC every week. Nazareth (2-5, 0-2) gave us a good test.”
Point guard Jake Stepuszek keyed the fourth quarter for the Lions, scoring 6 of his team-high 16 points to go with 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
“Jake kind of floated around the first three quarters,” said Hayes. ‘He's our floor leader, and when the fourth quarter came he and our other captain Danny Walsh stepped up. I have to give credit to Miles McDonnell. He played some key minutes and did some good things for us on the floor.”
The Lions were aggressive in the first quarter, hitting on 6 of 11 shots and taking a 17-7 lead after the first quarter.
Nazareth played even with the Lions in the second quarter and seemed to build some momentum going into halftime.
The Roadrunners went on a 14-5 run over the first 4:14 of the the third quarter, closing to within 32-31 before Hayes called a timeout.
“In the first quarter we were attacking the basket,” said Stepuszek. “Then we got away from it. When coach called timeout, he wanted us to become more assertive. I started the game sluggish. Coach got on me in the timeout and wanted us to drive more to the basket. We started curling more on the screens and making that extra pass that led to layups.”
Marc Clark gave the Lions some breathing room with a 3-pointer. Kyle Hammarlund (11 points) scored on an assist from Stepuszek. Stepuszek scored and the lead swelled to 39-31 before the Lions settled with a 41-34 lead to end the quarter.
Nazareth stayed within striking range throughout the fourth quarter thanks to some strong play by Joshua Ogelsby, who scored 9 of his team-high 18 points in the quarter. Kaleb Thornton scored 8 of his 13 in the quarter.
“We had trouble scoring early,” said Nazareth coach John Bonk. “We played stronger in the second half. Toward the end I think we got a little gassed. They were able to get some easy baskets.”
Nazareth shot 39 percent for the game, making 22 of 56 shots from the field with only 6 turnovers. The Lions shot 57 percent on 22 of 38, but with 16 turnovers.
“We we're lucky to come out of this one with the win,” said Hayes. “We came out too relaxed in the third quarter quarter.”
“The conference race is going to be tough,” said Stepuszek. “From top to bottom it's a tough conference. But we hung together tonight. We've all played with each other for a long time so we have confidence that we can step up when we need to.”