Proviso East hands St. Charles East its 1st loss
The positives may have outweighed the negatives during St. Charles East's third-round matchup with Proviso East in the Saints' 60th annual Ron Johnson Thanksgiving Basketball Tournament.
The Saints (2-1) did suffer their first loss of the young season, dropping a 67-63 decision to the Pirates (2-1), as they were unable to overcome 24 turnovers - 16 of them coming in the second half, including 11 4th-quarter giveaways.
Despite the setback, St. Charles East advanced to Saturday's 7 p.m. championship against Willowbrook (3-0).
St. Charles East, Proviso East and South Elgin all finished divisional play with 2-1 records but the Saints won the next tiebreaker for least points allowed (176) in 3 games.
"We're going to grow - and we're playing for the championship tomorrow," said Saints senior forward Cody Mitchell, who finished with 14 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
St. Charles East got off to promising start, grabbing a 21-12 first-quarter lead thanks in part to Mitchell's 7 points and 3-pointers from Nate Ortiz and Mark Musial.
The Saints maintained an 8-point lead at 25-17 on a pair of Ortiz free throws with 5:07 left in the second quarter but the Pirates clawed their way back to within 28-26 at the half.
The third quarter featured 7 lead changes and 4 ties - the last coming at 47-all heading into the final 8 minutes.
Proviso took the lead for good at 49-47 on a pair of free throws from Michael Osborne (19 points) and teammate Terrence Thomas' steal and layup on the Saints' next possession made it 51-47.
Thomas capped the 7-0 run with another free throw as the Pirates led 54-47 with 5:52 remaining.
Proviso's lead grew to 64-55 following a 3-point play by Timaryon Shorts with 1:34 left.
"Whenever you're playing the host team in a tournament, you've got to make them feel a little uncomfortable on both ends of the court," said Pirates coach Donnie Boyce. "In the first quarter, they really did a great job of setting the tempo and from that point on, we amped up our pressure a bit.
"We want to wear you down for four quarters."
The Saints dug deep down the stretch, going on an 8-0 run that included a pair of 3-pointers by Ortiz (23 points, 6 rebounds) sandwiched around Chase Monkemeyer's putback to cut the deficit to 64-63 with 33 seconds remaining.
"I liked the way we bounced back at the end," said Mitchell. "You love to see that in a young team."
Mitchell also fueled the Saints' huge 34-16 rebounding edge.
"A lot of it was the height differential but some of it was grit," said Mitchell, who came within 3 rebounds of the Pirates' team total. "It's one of the reasons why we came back there at the end and got it that close."
Monkemeyer and Luke Matheny chipped in with 10 and 7 points, respectively, for the Saints.
"There's not enough timeouts in the world to stop 24 turnovers," said Saints coach Patrick Woods. "We've got to be better with the ball and we'll get better.
"We'll be tested again tomorrow."