Boys Basketball: Seton’s balanced attack tops Crane

Updated: December 6, 2011 10:16PM

Even after No. 10 Seton pulled off an impressive 73-66 win over No. 14 Crane Tuesday night in South Holland, coach Brandon Thomas wasn’t looking for a pat on the back.

“It’s a December win and December wins aren’t that big,” said Thomas, after his team improved to 8-0. “The only thing good about it is we were able to defend our home court.

“We don’t have anything to prove other than when somebody comes into our house we have to defend it.”

The Sting defended their basket impressively against the Cougars (1-1), who came in with just one game under their belt.

Willie Conner scored 16 of his game-high 23 points in the first half when the Cougars erased a 10-point deficit in the first quarter and led 34-33.

But the balanced scoring by the Sting and the consistent zone-trap defense proved too much during a 15-5 third quarter run that gave them the lead for good 56-47.

J.R. Tolliver led four starters in double figures with 17 points. Mark Weems Jr. added 16, Kamak Shasi chipped in 14 while Jordan Foster had 13. Johnny Patterson came off the bench and grabbed five rebounds.

Markee Williams had 13 points off the bench for the Cougars while teammate Isaiah Hayes added 11.

The Cougars pulled within 59-56 and 61-58 early in the fourth quarter but would get no closer.

“What I really tried to do is prolong the season as along as possible and get as many reps and I could with the kids,” said Cougars coach Chris Head of his team entering the contest with just one game under their belt. “We held out as along as we could.

“We knew coming in here it wouldn’t be easy, seeing they were 7-0. They play a very unique style of basketball, very similar to what we used to do at Westinghouse.”

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