The Carmel Corsairs sophomore basketball team prevailed against the visiting Roadrunners from Nazareth Academy Friday night in Mundelein 43-39 in the opening game of the East Suburban Catholic Conference. The game started on a lucky note for Nazareth when Vern Schramer banked in a free throw in the opening minute, and it ended on a lucky note for Carmel when General Schofield banked in a 3 point basket in the final minute. “I was open and waited for someone to pass to me. There wasn’t much time left so I took the shot and made it.”
Carmel (2-3, 1-0) won its opening home game and hopes to add another victory against Waukegan Saturday evening. The Roadrunners fell to (1-4, 0-1).
After a disappointing showing against Libertyville, Carmel Coach Brad Geary’s team was focused on effort. “For the most part we played hard. We won because of our defense, and we hit big shots when needed.”
Carmel needed the extra effort to compensate for some first quarter sloppiness. Excessive turnovers disrupted their own attack, forcing them out of an offensive rhythm. The Roadrunners, on the other hand, demonstrated fluid offensive movement off the ball, resulting in early layups for Schramer (15 points) and a buzzer beater by Jacob Eraci (9 points) to close out the first quarter with a 11-7 lead.
Before halftime Carmel moved into a 1-2-2 zone only to have it promptly dismantled by the Nazareth offense. The Roadrunners quickly moved the ball out of the Corsair traps to find scoring opportunities in the low post. Within minutes, Carmel was forced back into a man to man defense. The Roadrunners added a press at the end of the quarter, forcing 4 Carmel turnovers, and subsequent layups, in the final minute of the half. With 13 seconds left the play in the half, Nazareth Coach Paris Lewis called time out and drew up a play for the Roadrunners. Nazareth sent four men to the baseline leaving Kerron Cotton at the point with the ball. Anthony Cullotta swung the length of the baseline around two screens and caught the ball from Cotton in the corner for a last second 3 pointer that he swished before the horn. The shot gave Nazareth momentum and a 22-16 at the break.
But the third quarter was all Carmel. Asher Jackson started the action with a smooth 12 foot jump shot. He then added two free throws before Schofield found a streaking Mike Matz for back to back layups off of Nazareth turnovers.
Turnovers were a concern of Coach Paris coming into the game, “The key tonight’s game is to limit turnovers, rebound well, and take good shots.” His team was outstanding at rebounding but committed 13 turnovers tonight, including 4 in the third quarter that led to a Carmel resurgence. Before the end of the quarter, Nazareth had a chance to reclaim the lead. Down 28-27 with 18 seconds left, Coach Paris saw that Carmel slipped back into a 2-3 zone. He called timeout and drew up another effective play. This time, his team swung the ball to the high post and found Schamer for a back door layup. Unfortunately, Schramer was pressured and mishandled the ball, allowing Carmel to retain its 28-27 lead into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Carmel turned to Ben Lamora for defensive help against Schramer. The Corsairs mixed zone and man to man defenses against Nazareth to disrupt the Roadrunners. Contributing to this disruption was the dynamic defensive play of AJ Ajaga. His defensive havoc led to a series of unfortunate events for the visiting Roadrunners in the final two minutes. Clinging to a 39-38 lead, the Roadrunners lost forward Charlie Gloor (6 points) to five fouls. Then the Roadrunners missed the front end of a one and one, got the rebound, returned to the free throw line after another foul, and missed another one and one. In the final two minutes Nazareth hit 1 of 6 free throws.
After the game, Roadrunner Coach Paris Lewis observed, “The reason we lost was because we didn’t make a lot of free throws and didn’t protect the ball well even though we rebounded well.” The Roadrunners hope to rebound Saturday when they face Oswego East at home.
Carmel reacts to Schofield’s winning 3 point basket
