York stymies Christie, Rolling Meadows in Tosh quarterfinals
With all the scrapes on his arms, York's Nathan Shockey looked like he had been in a battle.
The senior didn't leave anything for chance on both ends of the court, scoring 25 points. He also led the York double team of Rolling Meadows superstar Max Christie, limiting him to 16 points.
When the smoke cleared, Shockey and York came out on top with a 46-39 win over the Mustangs Saturday in the quarterfinals of the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York in Elmhurst.
Defending tournament champion York (11-1) will meet Schaumburg is the semifinals at 6:30 p.m. Monday.
"I usually come out of a game like this," said Shockey, who hit 8-of-10 free throws in the fourth quarter to hold off Rolling Meadows. "We just wanted to attack the rim, drive and kick and finish layups and we did that real well."
York bounded out of the gate early behind the play of 6-foot-5 Tim Glavan. The senior was very active on the low post, blitzing the Mustangs for 7 first-quarter points as York raced out to a 17-6 lead after one quarter.
"I thought it would be huge if I had a big start," said Glavan, who finished with 9 points and 4 rebounds. "This would kick me off. When the guards drove in and drew the help, I was able to get two easy buckets."
York was also able to stymie Christie. Not only did the Dukes double team him in the frontcourt, they would triple team him whenever he got the ball near the basket.
"Everyone knows how special he is," said York assistant coach Rob Wostratzky, who was taking questions after head coach Vince Doran left immediately following the game to be with his wife, who went into labor.
"You can't play him with one guy. You can hardly play him with two guys."
Despite all the attention, Christie was still able to able shake free at times. Because of that, Christie and the Mustangs (9-3) methodically began to close the gap on York.
Rolling Meadows pulled to within 22-16 at the half and trailed 27-25 in the closing seconds of the third quarter when the game took a final change.
York was holding the ball for a last shot of the period. Meadows stole the ball, but then quickly turned it over as the Mustang player lost his footing. The ball then ended up in Shockey's hands. He took one dribble and fired up a shot from half-court and the near sideline and the ball swished through the net as time expired, giving York a 30-25 advantage.
"I just put it up," Shockey said, "Someone poked it free. I just threw it up there and gave it a chance. It was a huge momentum builder going into the fourth."
Meadows did get the lead down to 32-29 on a basket by Cameron Christie (8 points) with 6:08 to play. Glavan, like he did earlier, scored a basket inside to ignite the Dukes to six unanswered points. With Shockey hitting his free throws, Meadows never got closer than six.
"We were uncharacteristic to start the game" Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Katovich said. "We have been doing a nice job executing our game plan. We didn't do that."
Orlando Thomas had 7 points for Rolling Meadows, which will play Lyons at 3:30 p.m. on Monday. Nick Hesch and Denton Rohde each added 6 points for York.