advertisement

St. Viator's road warriors rack up another win

If the St. Viator boys basketball team is looking for a motto for this year's team, maybe it should be, 'Have Team, Will Travel'.

Saturday afternoon St. Viator visited Taft High School on the far Northwest Side of Chicago and came away with a 61-44 nonconference win.

The Lions (14-2) have a loaded schedule the rest of the month with Notre Dame, St. Patrick and Marist on their East Suburban Catholic Conference slate as well as a nonconference schedule that includes Waukegan next Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the DePaul Prep shootout in addition to tussles with Loyola, Jacobs and Bloom at the Glenbard East shootout Jan. 26th.

"Different areas, different teams," said St. Viator coach Quin Hayes. "We're preparing for every type of team, gyms, and environments and our own league play to get ready for the state tournament."

St. Viator's Connor Kochera liked the environment of the Taft Eagles Nest gym. The senior guard scored a season-high 24 points including making 5 of 6 3-point attempts in an amazing second quarter and 6 of 8 from beyond the arc for the game.

"When I'm feeling it I get in the zone. I just focused on my shot. It was about execution," said Kochera. "Jerry (Hernandez) was finding me in open spots and I made the shots."

Hernandez, who scored 16 points, also had 9 assists and 5 rebounds as the Lions won for the 11th time in their last 12 games.

With Treyvon (Calvin) out today (illness), " said Hernandez, "I stepped into the point guard role and did what was needed for us to win. We're playing in big gyms and small gyms. This is good for us."

The Eagles (6-11), who start three juniors for coach Jason Tucker, stayed as close as 11-9 following Jared Bandi's (12 points) 3 pointer with 1:30 left in the first quarter.

Hernandez hit two baskets and Patrick Hammarlund one as St. Viator finished the quarter ahead 17-9.

With Kochera hitting his five 3-pointers in the second period, Hernandez scoring 6 points and Owen Hickey chipping in a 3-pointer the Lions went on a 22-2 run to build a 42-16 halftime lead.

"When we scouted St. Viator at the Wheeling tournament last week," said Tucker, we felt that if we could keep them out of the lane maybe we could control them. They just shot too well from the outside."

Kochera, who started the season slowly while recovering from a leg injury, is at full strength. In the third place game against Glenbrook South at Wheeling last week he scored 23 points in the Lions' win.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.