Coaches United Invitational: Saturday Notebook

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There was a slate of 5 games at the event held at Whitney Young High School on Saturday. Though I wasn't able to stay for all 5 games I did catch the first four.&nbsp; Here is my recap!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>West Aurora 54 &nbsp;TF North 49</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This game saw two of the top 2027 players battle it out on the court.&nbsp; West Aurora's &nbsp;[player_tooltip player_id='2125687' first='Travis' last='Brown'] and TF North's [player_tooltip player_id='2323613' first='Demarco' last='King']. In a very scrappy contest Brown made the most of his buckets in transition attacking the basket while the defense couldn't get in position. With King he made some things happen by driving to the basket early and scoring easy buckets. &nbsp;Then as West Aurora switched to a zone he made 3 three-pointers to help keep his team in the game. The Meteors were down ten with 3 min left to play and surged back to cut the lead to two. But West had additional scoring from the 2027 guard.&nbsp; Abe Martinez is a steady shooter who made two threes in the contest and led the team in scoring with 16 points.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Fenwick 42, Peoria Central 28</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In a game that started slow due to its high energy on defense from both teams we saw spurts of scoring from 2025 [player_tooltip player_id='1766506' first='Leshawn' last='Stowers'] who had to muscle his way into 6 points early. Fenwick didn't hit their stride until the second half with help from [player_tooltip player_id='2105305' first='Dominick' last='Ducree'] and a very stingy Friars defense. Dominick was consistent at nailing mid-range pull-ups and beating guys off the dribble out of set plays. On the other side of the ball was how the game was won. Holding Peoria to just 5 points the whole second half by loading the defense on Stowers and making the others have to score, which they just struggled to do. Ducree led all scorers with 20 points as Stowers finished with 8.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Curie 67 Waukegan 65</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Maybe the best game of the day. Curie and Waukegan both played a fast-paced game with the Bulldogs playing from behind most of the game. At one point Curie took a double-digit lead behind the shooting of 2025 [player_tooltip player_id='2452415' first='Brad' last='Johnson']. He was focused in the middle stages of the game connecting on several threes. It was steady guard [player_tooltip player_id='1465916' first='Xavi' last='Granville'] who stepped up and led Waukegan runs to cut the lead down to single digits. Granville is at his best getting to the basket and scoring through traffic. He's a throwback guard in the sense that he doesn't jack up a ton of three-pointers. Xavi attacked the paint often and scored several times while getting fouled. Earning his three points the old-fashioned way. His surge had some second-half help from [player_tooltip player_id='1845356' first='Jaali' last='Love']. Tied the game and sent it to overtime. Curie was able to get additional help from Mike Oliver Jr in the late minutes of the game including hitting two free throws from a technical foul from Waukegan as they called a timeout they didn't have while down 2 points. Granville would foul out in the overtime but finished with 36 points in a game the Bulldogs eventually lost.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>DePaul Prep 56 Oswego East 48</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Another game that started very slow with both teams feeling each other out the first two quarters. In the second half DePaul Prep got a huge lift from their big man [player_tooltip player_id='1845360' first='Rashaun' last='Porter']. He showed good patience in the post and created space with his wide frame. He scored several layups and even had a two-handed dunk. From the Oswego East side top-ranked Mason Lockett was solid having his hand in different aspects of the game. He used his size to help out on the glass and showcased his passes through the zone as his basketball IQ is very high. As a scorer he did hit two shots from three and the rest came from scoring around the paint using his 6'4 size advantage over the smaller DePaul guards. As the game reached the 4th quarter the likely trio of [player_tooltip player_id='1545133' first='Makai' last='Kvamme'], [player_tooltip player_id='1435692' first='Rykan' last='Woo'], and [player_tooltip player_id='2323334' first='AJ' last='Chambers'] all started to get open shots with Porter playing so well in the paint. The Rams would open the lead-up and never look back. [player_tooltip player_id='1845360' first='Rashaun' last='Porter'] finished with 18 points and 9 rebounds. Lockett had 15 points with 7 rebounds and 5 assists.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->