Crystal Lake S. falls to Marian Central
Wes Buckner has had his share of adversity the last two basketball seasons for Crystal Lake South.
A broken elbow kept him out of the state tournament last year. And this year a high left ankle sprain in the Gators' preseason scrimmage sidelined him until the Jacobs Hinkle Holiday Classic in Algonquin.
The 6-foot-6 Buckner also tried to help his team overcome a lot of adversity in Saturday's Class A consolation championship with 14 points and 11 rebounds but Marian Central held on for a 59-55 victory.
“I'm excited for him — he had great energy and kept us in the game,” said CLS coach Matt LePage.
“I'm blessed to be back and playing here,” Buckner said. “I'm still able to play my senior season ... and I told myself I had to battle through adversity and do whatever I could to get back.
“Now I'm here and I want to win games for my team.”
Marian (10-3), which got 22 points from senior guard and three-time all-tourney pick Adam Pischke, hit 14 straight free throws to help build a 57-48 lead with 2:43 left.
CLS (8-5) two-time all-tourney pick Zach Geske scored all 12 of his points in the first 11:14 but fouled out with 6:01 left. Then it got within 57-55 when Tim Siessenop (8 points) hit a 23-footer at 1:41.
But turnovers on consecutive possessions in the final 50 seconds prevented the Gators from getting shots to force overtime.
“With Zach on the bench the last six minutes, we found something out that we need guys other than him to make a play there,” LePage said.
“Everybody needs to be confident in their shots and want the ball and get the ball and score,” Buckner said. “That's why we didn't win today, especially when Zach went out like that.”
Pischke, a Cary resident, went 7-for-16 from the field to finish the five-game tournament with 135 points, which was just four shy of matching the tourney record set last year by Carmel's C.J. Duff. Pischke banked in a half-court runner at the first-quarter buzzer in a 10-point run that put Marian up 25-14.
Marian also got 11 points from Thomas Kaufmann and 10 points and 5 rebounds from 6-8 all-tourney junior Sam Ohlrich.
“It would have been cool, but I wasn't going to do anything different in the game (to get the record),” Pischke said. “As long as we win I'm happy ... and 4-1 is the best we've done since I've been here. We're 10-3 and looking good and that means a lot more.”
CL South is also looking forward to now having Buckner back in the lineup inside with 6-9 Joshua Friesen (12 points on 6-for-11 shooting).
“I told myself throughout the whole game we could beat these guys and it would be a big statement for us,” Buckner said. “We had a couple of possessions where we pulled back and made silly turnovers and we can't let that happen. If we execute we can win games like this.
“We've been looking forward to this season with me, Friesen and Geske all coming back and a bunch of other guys who are really good role players.”