St. Viator gets past Carmel
The temperature outside might have been below zero, but host St. Viator and Carmel Catholic were on fire in the fourth quarter of their East Suburban Catholic Conference boys basketball game Tuesday night.
The game was a back-and-forth dogfight to the finish with numerous lead changes. But in the end the Lions pulled out an exciting 71-65 ESCC victory over the Corsairs as St. Viator senior Jeremiah Hernandez scored 18 of his game-high 32 points in the pivotal fourth quarter.
The Lions (18-5, 5-1) broke a second-place tie with Carmel (16-10, 4-2) in the ESCC as they outscored Carmel 29-23 in the wild final quarter.
A 3-pointer by Carmel's Jonathan Roeser (21 points) deadlocked the score at 59-59 with 3:06 to play before Hernandez and St. Viator's "refuse to lose" attitude to charge of the game down the stretch.
Hernandez had a 3-point play with 2:40 remaining, a driving basket, a free throw, another driving basket, and 2 free throws with 3.7 seconds left to ultimately seal the hard-fought win.
St. Viator's Kevin Murphy came up with a huge offensive rebound off a missed free throw which led to Hernandez scoring on a drive for a 67-63 lead with 32 seconds left.
Michael Campagna (13 points) hit 2 clutch free throws with 17.9 seconds to go for a 69-65 lead.
"We just stayed poised under pressure and those two free throws in the end by Campagna were huge for us," said Hernandez, who had 10 points at halftime. "We got a couple of stops at the end, and we knocked down some free throws (13-for-16 overall) to give us the cushion to win the game."
Carmel sophomore Kimahri Wilson (21 points) just missed a 3-pointer with 12 seconds to play and the Corsairs were forced to foul which ended any chances of a victory.
Junior guard Connor Kochera also had a big game for St. Viator with 16 points while Damone Williams-Gray chipped in 9 points for Carmel.
"I thought at times we did some good things, especially on offense, but in the end a couple of missed box outs kind of made the difference," said Carmel coach Zack Ryan, whose team trailed 26-23 at halftime before going into the fourth quarter tied at 42-42. "We're still really happy with where we're at, and hats off to them and Hernandez, he hit some big shots in the end."
Kylen Beals and William Schott scored 6 points each for the Corsairs while Murphy added 6 points for the Lions.
"He (Hernandez) is doing a heck of a job scoring the basketball for us, and how he's scoring right now is kind of through our offense," said St. Viator coach Quin Hayes, whose team is still without key senior Treyvon Calvin due to injury. "Carmel is a very good team. I'm very proud of our guys, and Murphy was fantastic tonight with two huge rebounds and a steal in the end."