Boys Basketball: Sandburg puts ‘D’ clamps on Lincoln-Way Central

Updated: January 27, 2012 10:55PM

Sandburg beat Lincoln-Way Central at its own game.

Playing tough man-to-man defense, Sandburg smothered the Knights in a 34-24 victory in a SouthWest Suburban Blue battle Friday night in New Lenox.

“I’ve known [Central] coach Bobby Curran for years and any time you go against him you know you’re going to get a grind-it-out game,” Sandburg coach Todd Allen said. “Defensively we were solid. A 10-point win felt like 20.”

Milek Harris led the way for the Eagles (9-8, 4-3) with 14 points and added 12 rebounds. The sophomore forward scored all eight of Sandburg’s points in the fourth quarter, including going 6-for-6 from the free-throw line.

“Sometimes you have to step up and hit big shots,” Harris said. “We weren’t hitting much in the fourth quarter, so I knew the only way to step up was to hit my free throws.

“We always want to come out and play hard on defense. That’s what we did and we only gave up 24 points.”

Central (8-12, 1-6) never got closer than nine points in the fourth quarter. But the key stretch of the game was definitely the second quarter, as Sandburg outscored the Knights 9-0 to take a 16-8 halftime lead. Ken Payonk had five of his six points in the run.

“I didn’t realize that we held them without scoring for the quarter until later,” Allen said. “But we worked hard on defense all week. It was a good win for us and I’m happy to get a road win.”

The Knights didn’t score again until Kevin Mampe hit a short bank shot with 5:18 left in the third quarter to cut the lead to 20-10. During the 10:42 drought, Central was 0-of-10 from the field, 0-of-4 from the line, and committed two turnovers.

Sandburg led by as many as 16 before the Knights scored the final five points of the third quarter to make it 26-15 after three.

“That’s to their credit,” Curran said of the Eagles defense. “We had some looks but they have three guys 6-foot-6 or bigger and their length really hurt us.”

Nick Lehnerer added seven points for Sandburg. Brad Foster led Central with nine points, including a 16-footer at the first quarter buzzer that gave the Knights an 8-7 lead. Foster added eight rebounds and three blocked shots and Johnny Finnin contributed six points and six rebounds for Central.

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