Maine West tops St. Viator for Hardwood consolation title

Maine West broke out to a 28-8 first quarter lead in the consolation championship at the 40th annual Wheeling Hardwood Classic on Saturday night.

St. Viator used up a lot of energy in the second quarter to battle back.

A strong finish made the difference as the Warriors came away with a 60-53 win over the Lions.

"It was a chess-match game," said Maine West coach Tom Prokopij. "Midway in the fourth quarter,we switched to a 1-3-1 zone to see where their shooters were. We picked up some charges, and Jack Collins came up with a big steal."

Following Treyvon Calvin's 3 which gave St. Viator (10-3) a 51-48 lead with 4:10 left, Collins came up with the play of the game.

Collins had pulled Maine West (8-5) to within 51-50 with 3:37 left. The game-changing play came when Collins tipped a pass and, using his 6-foot-4 frame, raced down the court and layed the ball in the basket for a 52-51 lead with 3:18 left.

"I thought that steal really got our defense going," said Collins, who scored 22 points and pulled down 13 rebounds. "I started to go back upcourt and I could see my teammates were really hyped up. The 1-3-1 helped us with our defensive stand the rest of the game."

Collins followed with another basket, and senior guard Julian Dones hit 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to open a 60-51 lead with :10 left.

"Early losses in the season helped us to learn," said Collins. "We learned you can't take plays off. As a senior, you want to give everything you got, because you know you won't be coming back next year."

Peter Lambesis broke a 4:05 scoring drought to score for the Lions' final points with :05 on the clock.

"We just ran out of gas," said St. Viator coach Quin Hayes. "After trailing by 20, we pulled to 34-32 to end the first half. It took a lot out of us. We just weren't able to score the last few minutes of the game. I'm proud of the way the players fought back and took the lead in the fourth quarter."

Jeremiah Hernandez, who led the Lions with 18 points, scored 6 straight after a bucket from Calvin (12 points) to start the second quarter. Connor Kochera came off the bench with 9 points in the quarter to help the Lions get back in the game.

"In the locker room at halftime we talked about what we could do and what we did in the first quarter," said Dones. "We held our ground pretty well. We knew we had dug a hole but we have five seniors on the floor and we've been in tight situations. The experience helped us. When coach switched to the 1-3-1 zone we knew it was a risk -but it helped slow down their offense."

The Warriors hit the boards hard and had a 41-25 rebounding edge, many of which came in the first and fourth quarters.

"All the players on the floor did a great job for us," said Prokopij. "Darrington Bates (6 points, 3 assists) ran the offense, Matt Kentgen had 6 rebounds and 4 assists and Milos Dugalic was steady and had 7 rebounds. Our bench gave us some scoring and valuable minutes. It was another game where we played all 32 minutes."