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Deerfield runs past Rolling Meadows

It was all about focus Tuesday night at Rolling Meadows.

Deerfield had it and host Meadows never found it as the visitors used their height and length to confound the Mustangs and score a convincing 74-51 nonconference boys basketball win.

You might not have seen it coming at halftime, as Deerfield was clinging to a 36-30 lead, but the signs were there.

Deerfield had a 14-7 rebounding advantage at the break. The Warriors were shooting 15 of 27 from the floor and 3 of 4 from beyond the arc while Meadows (13-7) was 11 of 26, although 7 of 13 on 3-pointers. The Mustangs had also committed more fouls and generated far fewer trips to the free-throw line.

But the biggest problem for Meadows was that Deerfield's bigs - 6-foot-11 senior Brandon Lieb and agile 6-7 junior Walt Mattingly - had combined for 10 points and commanded the paint on both ends. Even more problematic, when they both sat - Lieb for a rest and Mattingly with fouls, Deerfield's bench extended the lead.

It was a foretelling of things to come in the third quarter, when Deerfield (10-8) put the game away, outscoring the Mustangs 21-5, as Lieb had 4 hoops in the period, including a 3, and Mattingly scored 5 points in the last minute, including a nifty 3-point play in transition.

Meadows had no answer, could not contain the Warriors and when the Mustangs did, point guard Luke Woodson and backcourt running mate Josh Garland made them pay.

"We're tough, we're tough to beat when we play like that," said Deerfield coach Dan McKendrick. Even more so on defense.

Clearly showing how much they respected Meadows' celebrated junior Max Christie, they chased him all over the court, trapping him in zones and doubling him in man-to-man. While he displayed patience and poise and distributed the ball to his little brother Cameron (team-high 14 points), Orlando Thomas (8) and Jonah Ogunsanya (8), Max Christie only wound up with 8 points himself on just 9 shots as Deerfield was clearly conscience of and focused on him.

"A player that good, you have to be," said McKendrick.

The Mustangs never regrouped after halftime, shooting 2 of 17 in the third quarter, as Lieb swatted away or altered too many shots inside and the Mustangs' usually dependable perimeter shooting just wasn't there.

"They were focused and we were not focused," Mustangs coach Kevin Katovich put it succinctly. "We didn't come out with the intensity we needed," and he took full responsibility for that.

"What you saw out there was not what we practiced," he said, almost mystified at what he'd been looking at as his team wound up outrebounded 31-16 while surrendering 31 field goals on 52 attempts to Deerfield and hitting just 20 of 56 of their own in front of Mid-Suburban East rival Buffalo Grove coaches scouting them for their matchup this Friday.

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