Conant keeps focused, tops Palatine

After both teams had endured tough overtime losses in Mid-Suburban League crossover play Tuesday night, both Palatine and Conant were looking to get back into the win column in their MSL West matchup at Perry Gym on Friday.

The host Cougars were also attempting not to look past the Pirates, even with a rematch at Fremd next Friday on the horizon.

Thanks in large part to dominant second and third quarter, they looked up to a victorious scoreboard at the end of 32 minutes of play that read Home 53, Guest 44. Conant won for the ninth time in the last 10 games.

"We're in what is now the middle phase of our season, where you are obviously attempting to get better by trying to improve in all facets of the game," Conant coach Tom McCormack said. "I think that this evening the key was that our defense got better as the game wore on plus our inside game wore them down as well."

That inside game got going just before the first-period horn sounded as forward Mike Downing had a rebound dunk to give Conant a 14-9 advantage after the first eight minutes.

Then Downing (7 points, 5 rebounds) had another dunk from a Jimmy Sotos feed to start the second quarter. Another feed inside from Ryan Davis led to a 3-point play for Downing's final points of the night, sparking an 8-0 surge that the Cougars (15-3, 4-1) parlayed into a 24-14 halftime edge.

In the third quarter, Davis took over as the 6-9 junior center scored 5 consecutive points, starting with a dunk off another Sotos feed as part of a 10-0 surge that gave Conant its biggest lead of the night at 36-18. Six-foot-4 junior swingman Ben Schols (11 points) finished it by connecting on his third trey of the night with 3:31 left in the period.

Conant kept that 18-point lead (40-22) at quarter's end, and Palatine (4-13, 1-4) got no closer then 9 the rest of the way.

"We wanted to try and dominate tonight inside," said Davis, who led all scorers with 19 points and 14 rebounds. "We succeeded by cleaning up the boards (35-23 rebounding edge) and being persistent on defense."

Junior forward Cortez Hogans paced the Pirates' attack with a 14-point, 8-rebound effort.

Palatine next travels to Lake Zurich for its annual MLK Weekend Classic, with games Saturday versus Maine East (2:45 p.m.) and the host Bears (7:30 p.m.). On Monday, Palatine faces Addison Trail at noon and a pool-play contest later that day.

"They're a much improved team from the beginning of the season," McCormack says of Palatine. "We've seen them take a very good Naperville North squad to overtime at the York Tournament (in December). They will be a much stronger team in the second half of division play."

Conant's rematch with the undefeated Vikings at 6 p.m. next Friday figures to reveal how much the Cougars have learned from their 48-37 loss at home on Dec. 9.

"I think that coming in we're much better prepared for having faced them as well as the other games we've had since then," said McCormack. "It helps you to resist the temptation to get complacent as you get to play everyone a second time."