Another Viking conquest for Maley, Conant
Moments after Conant's boys basketball team had beaten Fremd last Friday night, first-year Cougars coach Jim Maley permitted himself to begin looking forward to Tuesday's home nonconference matchup versus St. Laurence.
Who could blame him? After all, that's the program he'd coached for the previous three seasons.
Trying to defeat a collection of such familiar faces had Maley's emotions a bit jumbled - a mixture of anticipation, trepidation and melancholy, with a little bit of pride mixed in.
"I love those guys," Maley said. "There's nothing that I wouldn't do for any of them. I am so proud of the way they've continued to build what we started to build over the past couple of years."
Maley allowed one important caveat in matching up against the Burbank school at which he'd compiled a 41-49 record.
"I still want to beat them," he said with a smile.
Thanks to a strong defensive effort that erased a halftime deficit for the second consecutive game against a team named the Vikings, Conant earned a 65-56 victory in Hoffman Estates.
"We did a better job defending them in the second half," Maley said of his squad's holding the visitors to a 7-for-23 shooting performance in half number two as Conant overcame a 26-22 halftime deficit.
The effort began with a 10-2 run over the first 3:37 of the third period, which put Conant (16-6) ahead to stay at 32-28.
Raj Mittal (game-high 23 points, 9 rebounds) started it with a 3 just :22 into the third quarter. Ben Schols ended the spurt with the third of his four 3s, making it 32-28. The 6-foot-4 senior guard's inside feed to 6-9 Ryan Davis in the closing seconds of the third quarter left the home team up 40-33 heading into the fourth.
St. Laurence (16-7) was able to hang around as it closed within 49-44 on a pair of Jayden Robertson free throws with 3:37 left.
Conant responded with a 10-4 run over the next 2:40 to settle it. The closing surge was highlighted by Schols setting up Davis (17 points, 11 rebounds) for a stuff that made it 55-48 with 1:45 remaining.
Schols, who finished with 20 points, credited his team's second-half success with defensive movement.
"We did a better job with getting through their screens as well as having improved our coverage around the perimeter so they wouldn't get better looks than they were getting in the first half," Schols said.
He also said better possessions were key for Conant.
"We made a conscious effort to move the ball around more," Schols added. "It allowed us to knock down those shots."
St. Laurence was led by Timmy Molloy with 17 points, which included five 3s from the 6-0 senior. The Vikings were without the services of 6-5 starting forward Zion Fortune (ankle); they hope to have him back for a Friday night contest at Leo. St. Laurence trails the Lions by a game in the Chicago Catholic League's White Division.
"It was a fantastic game," said St. Laurence coach Jim Sexton. "It was a game full of emotions.
"We miss Jim a lot. He played a huge part in laying the foundation for success that we're enjoying this season on all of our levels."
With Tuesday's game now in the books, Maley and the Cougars now look ahead to a return to MSL West play versus Barrington on Friday night on their Perry Gym home floor. First place in the division is on the line; Barrington has a 1-game lead on Conant, Fremd and Palatine with 3 to play.
Friday's game also carries some weight as team compete for the top seed in the Class 4A Lake Zurich Sectional complex.
"It all goes back to our goals of winning the division and the conference, as well as getting the highest seed possible," Maley said. "A win could go a long way toward making a strong case for that top seed. It's going to be important for us to get off to a good start. We can't afford to put ourselves in that situation where we have to find an on/off switch to turn on once again."