Early Deficit Dooms Mustangs

Like many teams, when Lemont's boys basketball team is playing hard, pushing the pace, forcing turnovers and burying shots, the Indians can stay in any game.

The Indians used that exact formula to jump out to a 20-10 on Evergreen Park after a quarter of play in Tuesday night's South Suburban Conference game in Lemont.

"For some reason we come out in games fired up and play with a good tempo in the first quarter," Lemont coach Rick Runaas said. "And then we slow down."

Runaas' Indians did slow down in the second quarter, and twice protected a one-point lead late against the Mustangs, but hung on for a 53-46 win.

"After we get a lead we just need to keep it up because sometimes our intensity goes down," Lemont's Evan Bridwell said. "But I thought we moved the ball up the court really well tonight. We made some bad plays, but we made some good ones when we needed them."

After struggling to take care of the basketball and defend the Indians (4-3, 1-1 in SSC play) through eight minutes, Evergreen Park (0-2, 2-5) bounced back nicely in the second quarter of play. The Mustangs held the Indians to six points and earned an 11-6 scoring edge to cut their deficit to five points by halftime.

Evergreen Park coach Bruce Scaduto is waiting patiently for a young team to put fourth four consecutive quality quarters.

"After TJ (Cobbs) and Dillon (Knight), none of these kids played any varsity last year, so we're learning how to play during games," Scaduto said. "We just need to be more consistent."

Cobbs led the Mustangs with 19 points, followed by Brian Townsend's 11 and Marcus Kemp's 10 points on the night.

Evergreen Park cut its deficit to 30-29 thanks to a trio of baskets in quick succession from Cobbs early in the third quarter, and later trailed 36-35, but the Mustangs never managed to wrestle away the lead.

Lemont went on an 8-0 run that began near the end of the third quarter, capped by a reverse layup from Bridwell at the buzzer.

Bridwell led all scorers with 21 points on the night, and pulled down 12 rebounds to boot. The senior attacked the basket with a vengeance throughout the contest.

"He's a strong kid, an athletic kid, and we rely on him," Runaas said. "He's our only returning starter and tonight he played like a senior playing at home."

Evergreen Park made another run to cut the lead to 46-43 late in the game on a Cobbs trey, but a pair of free throws from Lemont's Joe O'Brien (8 points) and another from Matt Lipowski gave the Indians a six-point cushion with 25 seconds left to play.

"We got some key baskets, had some key rebounds, and made just enough free throws," Runaas said. "I like the way we're playing hard and the way we're playing together. We're 4-3 so we're on the good side of .500."