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Palatine tackles tall task against Conant

Palatine's boys basketball team decided that a wide receiver, linebacker, offensive tackle and defensive back is the best way to stop a power forward.

The strategy paid dividends as Palatine outlasted Conant 45-31 Friday in the opening game of Mid-Suburban West action in Palatine.

The Pirates reached to their football team to come up with a scheme to stop Conant 6-foot-8 standout Ryan Davis. Johnny O'Shea, Cortez Hogans, David Balanganayi and Jake Moertl each worked on Davis, who still managed to finish with 19 points.

"Our goal was to guard him with three guys," Palatine coach Eric Millstone said. "He really had to work for everything."

Millstone said that type of physical play will be the Pirates' mantra this season.

"We knew going into the season that toughness was going to be one of our assets," Millstone said. "Against a kid like Davis, you have to give everything you got."

Millstone had the 6-foot-3 athletic O'Shea fronting Davis. Hogans, who is also 6-foot-3 but plays taller, along with the stout 6-foot-4 Balanganayi and a shifty Moertl were all coming over to help. Add in Ben Storm and Lamon Berry, and the Pirates kept coming in waves.

"I thought they did a good job on Ryan," Conant coach Jim Malley said. "They forced him to miss shots."

With O'Shea and company on Davis, the Vermont recruit converted on 5 of 18 shots.

"It was really all five of us guarding him," O'Shea said. "We knew the whole team had to play great defense. I just tried to stay in front of him and have someone to help. I trusted that someone was always there."

One of the main helpers was Hogans, who is headed to Northern Illinois next year to play linebacker.

"Coach said that they key was to stop their big man," Hogans said. "We wanted to take away the skip passes and then get back in position."

Nobody was in any position in the first quarter.

After both teams played four games during Thanksgiving week, both appeared to be in a lingering food coma in the first quarter. The squads combined for 7 turnovers, converting just 1 field goal and going 4-for-10 from the free throw line as Palatine led 4-2.

It got a little better, but not much, as Palatine (3-2, 1-0) led 13-8 at the half.

Hogans sparked the Pirates to begin the second half. He converted a pair of offensive rebounds into baskets as Palatine ran off 9 unanswered points to lead 22-8 with 5:15 left in the third quarter.

"I think we were a lot more patient than we were in our last two games," Millstone said. "That's what did us in those last two games of the Thanksgiving tournament. We shared the ball and took good shots."

Conant (2-3, 0-1) never got closer than 8 from there. And the Cougars had just 2 other players score besides Davis.

"We need other guys to step up and take some accountability too," Malley said. "They are good players, too."

Hogans led Palatine with 19 points and 13 rebounds while O'Shea chipped in 10 points. Berry added 6 points while Moertl had 5.

Davis had 10 rebounds while Anthony Wachal had 9 points for the Cougars.

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