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Niles North overcomes Duff, Carmel in tourney opener

Getting off on the right foot was the goal for Carmel Catholic's boys basketball team in Lake Zurich's Martin Luther King tournament on Tuesday night.

The Corsairs tried to keep pace with Niles North - but turnovers, missed shots and the Vikings' quickness eventually got the best of Carmel.

Niles North ran away with a 67-52 victory over Carmel Catholic in a tournament opener held at Niles North.

C.J. Duff led the Corsairs (7-7, 0-1) with a game-high 26 points and 14 rebounds. John Barr added 8 points, Sean Foster chipped in with 6 (and 11 rebounds) and Mathew Stephens also had 6 points.

"I thought we did some good things," Carmel Catholic coach Zack Ryan said. "We got off to a good start. The kids played hard and battled against a good team. A lot of positives can come out of that. We just have to find different ways to win coaching-wise and playing-wise."

The Corsairs came out with plenty of intensity and found themselves down 17-13 after the first quarter to Niles North (12-4, 1-0).

In the second quarter, Carmel Catholic found itself down 21-19 with just over three minutes left. But then the Corsairs gave up the ball a few times and starting missing shots.

"When you're struggling to score and playing a good team, you can't do those things," Ryan said. "So, if we turned the ball over half as many times and make some layups, then we're in a good situation. Those are things that we can fix with practice."

The Vikings took advantage of the miscues and missed shots, scoring 6 straight points closing the half. Crishawn Cook scored the final layup of the spurt on his way to a team-high 15 points as Niles North took a 27-19 lead to the half.

"I really didn't think that we came out with great energy," Niles North coach Glenn Olson said. "I like how we closed the half and the way we came out after halftime. (Carmel Catholic) did switch things up defensively. It took us a while to figure things out."

Niles North kept running in the third quarter, as Jamal Stephenson came off the bench and scored 11 points as part of a 17-5 run that put the Vikings up 44-24 with 3:22 left in the period.

Entering the final quarter, the Vikings held a 50-36 lead. The closest the Corsairs were able to get was 12 points.

The Vikings got 14 points from Jordan Labelle and Damaria Franklin had 11.

Carmel Catholic will play four more games in the tournament, all of which will be played at Lake Zurich. The Corsairs get two games on Saturday and two more on Monday.

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