Conant puts the clamps on Hoffman Estates

The scorebook may show that Conant point guard Dominic Benigni tallied only one basket Friday night at Hoffman Estates.

But according to Cougars coach Jim Maley, the senior was one of the key components in Conant's win.

"One of our Achilles' heel this year has been taking care of the basketball," said Maley. "Not being strong with the ball and committing far too many turnovers. I don't know the number tonight but it seemed like we were pretty good at taking care of it, and I thought Dom played his best game that he's ever played at Conant.

"He took care of the basketball and made sure we got a good shot every single time."

And on a night when points were difficult to come by for both teams, Conant put forth a terrific defensive effort to defeat the Hawks 42-32 in the Mid-Suburban League West opener.

Conant took a 4-2 lead in the first minutes of the game and didn't relinquish the advantage thereafter.

"We just played really well defensively," said Maley. "That's kind of our thing in our 1-2-2 zone. It kind of slows the game down a bit and it might be boring to the fans I'm guessing, but it's effective."

Senior Rajat Mittal scored a game-high 14 points for Conant, while Marquez Woodard led the Hawks with 10.

"I thought our defensive effort was pretty good, but they out-hustled us," said Hoffman coach Luke Yanule. "They were first to the floor in the first half, they won multiple possessions in the first half with their energy and their desire to be there.

"For some reason we weren't first to the floor and that was the big difference in the game. Their zone presents some challenges - we made some nice adjustments - but we didn't shoot very well."

Conant kept control throughout the first half, opening up a 6-point second-quarter lead when Mittal hit a 3-pointer.

Hoffman rallied as Jonathan Robson made a key 3, but a driving layup from Mittal at the halftime buzzer put the Cougars ahead 20-15.

"We've had a couple of games this year when we haven't come ready to play, haven't come ready to battle," said Mittal. "Tonight we played 32 minutes."

Conant opened up a double-digit advantage at 31-21 near the end of the quarter number three after a runout and layup by Mittal.

But Hoffman played tough in the fourth quarter and closed to within 37-30 when Sheldon Barnett-Morales fed Woodard for a layup.

"We never quit," said Yanule. "We fight but we've got to fight smarter. You've got to play the game smart and do what's needed to do to work our offense, and we didn't do that."

Conant extended the lead back to 10 with under a minute left on a free throw from senior Anthony Wachal.

Then after a Hoffman turnover, Conant ran out the rest of the clock to gain the victory.

"When we play like we did tonight, we're going to be tough to beat," said Maley. "Anytime a team gives up only 32 points they're going to be tough to beat."

Barnett-Morales had 8 points for the Hawks, while teammate Robson added 7 points.

Mittal added a game-high 6 rebounds to his point total, while Wachal finished with 8 points.

Conant senior Brandon Blakely scored 6 points on 2 first-quarter 3-pointers while senior Devon Ellis also had 6 points.

"The focus tonight was every little detail," said Mittal. " We had some struggles in our Thanksgiving tournament keeping control of the ball and not turning it over. Today at practice we focused on improving that and it translated over into the game."