Boys Basketball: Schaumburg pulls away late to top Brother Rice

Updated: December 29, 2011 9:28PM

The story of who advanced from the first semifinal game at the Hinsdale South Holiday Tournament can be summed up by two words: free throws.

Schaumburg connected on 28 of its 34 tries from the line while Brother Rice made good on just 5 of 12 attempts from the stripe.

That certainly proved to be the difference as the Saxons pulled away late to capture a 61-49 victory in Darien on Thursday.

Schaumburg (9-3) also benefited from a big effort from Christian Spandiary, who scored a game-high 28 points and added nine rebounds.

As a result, the Saxons earned a spot in Friday’s 7:45 p.m. title game against Metea Valley, who rallied for a 66-62 win over Sandburg.

“We’re very pleased with our effort,” Schaumburg coach Matt Walsh said. “In order to compete against a quality team like Brother Rice, we talked about playing a complete game, I was proud of how our kids fought throughout the game.”

Things were tied at 26-26 at the break before Schaumburg outscored the Crusaders (8-4) 11-4 over the first nine minutes of the final half.

The Saxons, who led throughout the final quarter, also received 11 points from Kyle Bolger and eight points from Jimmy Lundquist.

“This feels good,” Spandiary said. “We knew as the second-seed that we could reach the championship game. We play well defensively and that helps our offense. We trust each other and everyone knows what their role is on our team.”

Brother Rice was led by Sean Fitzpatrick (14 points), Jim Barista (13 points), Garrett O’Neill (12 points) and Alex Majewski (10 rebounds).

“We played with the best effort and defense that we have all year,” Brother Rice coach Pat Richardson said. “But turnovers hurt us and we picked a bad night to miss free throws. And Spandiary is so hard to guard since he’s so tough.”

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