Oak Lawn holds off Argo

Updated: March 23, 2011 4:02PM

Oak Lawn knocked off South Suburban Red foe Argo 47-40 in the quarterfinals of the Class 4A St. Rita Regional. The Spartans (15-11) have now won seven of the team's last eight games, but the seventh victory didn't come easy.

"I'd say we survived," Oak Lawn coach Scott Atkins said. "Argo played harder than we did tonight. We better play better against (Mount) Carmel."

Oak Lawn came out firing, starting the game on a 13-2 run behind nine points from Colin Altenburg (13 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals). The Spartans pushed the lead to 28-15 at the break, forcing 12 turnovers and holding Argo (3-23) to 7-of-21 shooting in the first half.

"Seeing as it's the first round of the playoffs, we wanted a fast start," Altenburg said. "I wanted to push myself to be a threat on offense. It's the playoffs, we need to step up."

The third quarter belonged to Argo, as the Argonauts outscored Oak Lawn 14-6 behind four points from Shaun Johnson (6 points, 6 rebounds) and three points each from Tamone Littlefield (10 points) and Ryan Krob. The Argonauts forced six Spartan turnovers in the third quarter.

Argo made it a two-point game on a three-pointer by Littlefield to start the fourth quarter, but Oak Lawn answered with a 9-2 run behind seven points from Callen Moore (18 points). The Argonauts would not go away, making it a five-point game with 1:16 left, but Moore netted two free throws with 38.5 seconds left to seal it.

"I told the team we needed to come together and play like a family," Moore said. "We are taking it step by step and trying to get as far as we can in the tournament."

Oak Lawn will play Mount Carmel in the regional semifinals Tuesday.

St. Rita 61, Gage Park 58: St. Rita survived a first-round scare in the quarterfinals of the team's home regional in Class 4A action. Mustangs (11-14) guard Tony Hicks (18 points) jumped a pass and sprinted toward the net with 35 seconds left to score the go-ahead layup, giving the Mustangs its first lead of the second half.

On the ensuing possession the Owls missed a layup and when Armon Shepard went for the putback, Mustangs guard Luke Barry (11 points) stripped it away and threw it off an Owl player as he fell out of bounds. Barry nailed two free throws with eight seconds left to seal it and the Owls missed a prayer three-pointer at the buzzer.

"I saw the pass coming and he had his back turned to the middle, so I could jump it," Hicks said. "It was a game that shouldn't have been close."

St. Rita shot 22-for-62 from the field and 2-of-15 from the three-point line.

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