Sotos, Conant draw praise after topping Highland Park

It's not all that often that a opposing basketball coach praises a player who just helped beat his team.

But Highland Park coach Paul Harris did just that Tuesday at the Joe Majowski tournament held in St. Viator's Cahill Gymnasium.

"The 3-point shot he hit at the end of the first half and their first basket of the third quarter says a lot about Jimmy Sotos," said Harris. "His teammates feed off him. He has the knack of doing what his team needs for him to do."

Sotos had 14 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists in the Cougars' 59-44 win over the now 1-1 Giants. Conant is now 2-0.

"Jimmy tends to step up in the second quarter and did what needed to be done," said Cougars coach Tom McCormack. "It's something we've seen a lot of."

The Giants, thoughout sized by the taller Cougars were hanging around, trailing 25-15 following a basket by Daniel Michelon. He and Ziv Tal led HP with 9 points.

With 2:30 left in the first half Soto popped in a 3, which was followed by Danny Ranallo's 3.

Michelon scored again to make it 31-17 with 1:42 left before Soto's buzzer-beating 3 gave the Cougars a 34-17 lead.

Sotos, who has signed on with Bucknell but has not decided on a major yet, was quick to point out that handing out assists gets him and the team going.

"I like setting up my teammates with good passes that lead to baskets," said Soto. "Those passes to Mike (Downing) is something we work on in practice. It gets the team going and everyone becomes involved. When that happens, we're pretty hard to guard. What we have going for us is team chemistry and being a close knit group. We hang out together and talk. It's not always about X's and O's."

The Cougars' scoring was pretty well spread out.

Downing led the team with 15 points, 11 in the first half. Ben Schols scored 9 points, getting all on 3s in the third quarter. Ryan Davis notched 8 points to go with a slam dunk on his own steal.

"Their big men hurt us more than just rebounding," said Harris. "They played around the perimeter and it made it tough on us to get inside."

The Cougars hit on 10 of 14 three point attempts and held a commanding 24-8 rebounding edge.

"I thought we executed really well against their defense," said McCormack. "We expected to do well on the boards and we did. This is such a tough tournament, but after the five games here you will see what you need to work on."

Conant next takes on an 0-2 Libertyville squad at 6 p.m. Wednesday.