Calvin's return boosts St. Viator to win over Nazareth
Rust? What rust.
Trey Calvin returned to action for the St. Viator boys basketball team as it traveled to LaGrange Park to take on Nazareth Academy Friday night.
Calvin, who missed four weeks with a broken left hand, led the Lions with 14 points and 8 rebounds in their 52-38 win in the East Suburban Catholic Conference.
"I knew his skill level would be there," said St. Viator coach Quin Hayes, "but I was concerned about his conditioning."
Trailing 10-6 at the end of a lethargic first quarter, Calvin started moving the Lions in the right direction in the second quarter.
His first shot, a 3-point attempt, found the bottom of the basket.
"Hitting that first shot helped me get in rhythm" said Calvin, a Wright State recruit.
"When I came into the game in the second quarter, I just wanted to ease myself into the game. I thought I might be a little rusty."
With that, St. Viator (19-5, 6-1) began to find its game.
The Roadrunners (6-15, 2-5) continued to play well with balanced scoring and held a slim 21-19 lead at the halftime break.
Nazareth's last lead was 27-24 with 6:20 left in the third quarter on a Darnell Hanson (8 points) basket.
St. Viator then put together an 8-0 run.
Michael Campagna (11 points) made 2 free throws to give the Lions the lead for good at 29-27.
Michael Love's 3-pointer cut the Lions' lead to 34-31 at the end of the third quarter.
Calvin connected for consecutive 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter as the Lions began to pull away.
Jack Mahoney scored 6 of his 8 points in the quarter and Connor Kochera scored 4 of his 13 as the Lions won for the fifth time in their last six games.
Connor Fritzsche led Nazareth with 12 points.
"I can't say enough of the play of players like Mahoney, Patrick Hammarlund, Owen Hickey, and Kevin Murphy," said Hayes. "They really played a solid floor game and turned up the defense. We gave up 21 points in the first half and they seemed to do what they wanted. But we only gave up 17 in the second half."
"We didn't play well in the first half," said Calvin. "In the second half we played better defense. We got some steals and that led to some points."
"We were just sluggish at the start of the game," said Hayes. "I felt if we played better defense it would lead to offense, and it did."
The Lions owned the backboards with a 25-8 advantage. Kochera added 8 rebounds for the Lions, who host Lake Zurich at 2:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon ahead of an ESCC title clash in Arlington Heights next Friday against Marian Catholic.