Boys Basketball: Lemont stings Joliet Catholic behind Juozas Balciunas

Updated: January 17, 2012 9:52PM

Juozas Balciunas, who spent his first two years at longtime basketball power St. Joseph, continued to lead Lemont’s resurgence this season with a team-high 20 points in Tuesday night’s 55-42 victory at Joliet Catholic.

“I just heard that I could help out the team,’’ Balciunas said of transferring. “I came here to try and play my game and help the team win.’’

The junior point guard secured the victory with three three-pointers in the fourth quarter, including back-to-back treys for a 42-28 advantage with six minutes to play.

“They were pretty wide open,” Balciunas said of the long-range shots. “Once they leave me that open, I take it.”
Lemont didn’t get rolling early, leading only 12-9 after the first quarter.

“The coaches told us just pick it up and play our game.’’ Balciunas said. “We knew we were better than what we played in the first quarter.’’

Ahead 21-15 at halftime, Lemont hit four of its first five shots in the third quarter to take a 29-19 lead on a jumper by Paul Otruskevicius (nine points). Matt Lipowski had six of his 10 points in the third quarter.

“I kind of break down the game by quarters,” Lemont coach Rick Runaas said. “As long as we’re winning quarters, I’m satisfied.”

Ryan Peter led Joliet Catholic (4-12) with 23 points and six rebounds. The Hilltoppers had closed to within 33-26 before a three-pointer by Mike Wisz (9 points) put Lemont ahead 36-26 entering the final quarter.

“As we started to get a little more of a lead, JCA had to kind of speed things up,” Runaas said. “The game got into a little more of the tempo we would want against them.”

“They’re well-coached and they have shooters,’’ Joliet Catholic coach Joe Gura said of the Indians. “If you leave those shooters alone, they’ll kill you. If you pay a little more attention to their shooters, they go inside.’’

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