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Conant clinches share of Mid-Suburban West title

If you were to ask Conant boys basketball coach Tom McCormack to give a thumbnail sketch of his Schaumburg counterpart, Wade Heisler, he would say that the first-year coach runs a system designed to take away an opponent's strengths and capitalize on its mistakes.

McCormack's Cougars almost played into the Heisler plan Friday night - the key word there being 'almost.'

Thanks to a 12-3 run over the final 2:21 that featured a 10-for-14 performance at the foul line and a 9-4 final quarter rebound advantage, Conant willed its way past the host Saxons 48-39 in Mid-Suburban West play.

The victory guaranteed the Cougars (16-5, 8-0) at least a share of the West title for the first time since 2009, when they tied Schaumburg and Fremd for that honor. A win at Fremd next Friday would give the Cougars the title outright, along with a berth in the MSL championship game on their home floor Feb. 24.

On this night, Conant could see that the Saxons have made some gains.

"They have really gotten better," said McCormack, who will get a share of his eighth divisional title (and the school's 10th overall). "They were able to create a lot of back-door plays on the offensive end of the floor, while defensively they were able to stick with us, and in a way take us out of our game. Collectively, however, our guys responded to the pressure at the end."

At the beginning of the second half, when Conant went ahead 24-15 on back-to-back hoops inside by Mike Downing, it didn't seem like it would be that close of a finish. But the Saxons (5-19, 2-6) pulled within 27-24 at the end of the third quarter by going on a 9-3 run over the final 5:41. Back-to-back 3s from 6-foot junior guard Aaron Kline (team-high 14 points) gave Schaumburg its only lead of the game, 31-30 with 4:48 left.

It was at that point that third-year varsity letterwinner Jimmy Sotos took over for Conant. The 6-2 junior guard first drove in for a layup to make it 32-31 Cougars. He followed that up by hitting a pair of free throws to extend the Cougars' lead to 3 with 3:23 remaining.

After Kline's last 3 tied it for a final time at 34 with 3:02 to play, Sotos fed 6-10 sophomore Ryan Davis (13 points, 8 rebounds) on consecutive trips down the floor, giving Conant the lead for good at 38-36 with 2:04 left.

Any hopes of a Saxons comeback were doused when freshman Heze Trotter missed a back-door layup off of a quick feed inside that Conant senior guard Brandon Vinson rebounded with 1:38 remaining, setting up the Cougars at the foul line for the remainder of the contest.

"It helps that we've played in a lot of close games in the past," said Sotos, who paced the Conant effort with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. "We have both a level of comfort as well as confidence in ourselves. Give Schaumburg a lot of credit - their zone (defense) is much better than it was back in December (in a 41-26 Conant win). They do a good job of rotating on their man."

For Heisler, whose squad lost its 14th game of the season by 10 points or less, the effort that his team gave in defeat gave him a sense of pride.

"I thought we really battled hard tonight," he said. "It's a testament to the hard work they put in practice. Especially when you get down by 9 like we did early in the second half. Against a team like Conant, that's awfully hard to try and do. You can't ask for anything more than that."

The Cougars make a Saturday night trip to Northbrook for a nonconfererence matchup with Glenbrook North (in a 6 p.m. tipoff). McCormack is hoping to see some progress.

"We really haven't played well in our two previous Saturday games after having played Friday," he said. "You need to be able to play well consistently on both nights. If you look at the big picture, the state finals in Peoria are consecutive games on Friday and Saturday, and the grand prize goes to the team that accomplishes that."

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