Updated: January 13, 2012 11:48PM

Schaumburg coach Matt Walsh knew his team was in for a good night when Jimmy Lundquist crashed the boards early to pick up a three-point play.

“Jimmy is a great player,” Walsh said. “His first basket was off of an offensive rebound. It was a good omen when his first basket was an and one.”

When Schaumburg’s leading scorer Christiam Spandiary picked up his second foul just over two minutes into the game, Schaumburg appeared to be in trouble. But Lundquist picked up the scoring slack, scoring 11 of his 13 points in the first half en route to a 48-44 win Friday.

“I saw Spandy go out,” said Lundquist, who also had 10 reboundd and a blocked shot.

“I knew I had to take a little initiative.”

Schaumburg led 12-10 with 1:51 left in the first quarter when the Saxons began to pull away.

Schaumburg scored the next seven points on their way to 14-3 run and a 26-13 lead at the half. Schaumburg forced six turnovers during that stretch while limiting the Cougars to 1-of-11 shooting.

The Saxons then forced three quick turnovers to open the second half and pull away with a 34-15 advantage.

“We played well the first three quarter,” Walsh said. “I thought we got good balance.”

Conant (8-9, 3-2) made a late run to close the gap. The Cougars rallied behind Kevin Schimel (10 points), Joey Ranallo (12 points) and Deangelo McBride (8 points) to make it close at the end.

“Playing with a lead can be tough,” Walsh said. “We may have taken our foot off the gas pedal a little too early.”

Michael Mallett had seven points for Schaumburg while Spandiary finished with six points.

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