Crystal Lake South’s defense stymies Cary-Grove

CARY – Crystal Lake South and Cary-Grove needed offense in the first half of Friday night’s Fox Valley Conference boys basketball game.

South coach Matt LePage had a different request.

“After the half, Coach [LePage] made a statement, saying he needs ballplayers today,” said Cooper Buelna, a senior forward and team captain. “I feel that we really took that personally. We stepped up in the second half and started shooting the ball more, started to trust each other a lot more, and I feel like when you start doing that, shots start falling.”

Buelna is one of the Gators' trusted ballplayers.

“We all are,” Buelna said. “The whole team is.”

South’s ballplayers played particularly good ball in the second half, pulling away from the Trojans en route to 61-30 win for the Gators’ eighth victory in their past nine games.

Buelna and AJ Demirov each scored 18 points to lead South (13-3, 5-1 FVC), which led 14-13 – a “football score,” LePage joked – with less than a minute left in the first half.

C-G (12-5, 3-3 FVC) stymied South with its man-to-man defense while paying extra attention to the elusive Demirov, and the Trojans had difficulty solving the Gators' 1-3-1 zone.

“We felt really good, and our kids were excited to play, but I think we played a little tight,” C-G coach Adam McCloud said after his team had its four-game winning streak snapped. “They’re really good. Matt coaches that 1-3-1 as well as anybody I’ve ever seen, and they got the best player in the league (Demirov).”

With both teams needing an offensive spark during the first half, Demirov provided one for the visitors. His right-corner 3-pointer off an inbounds pass from Tony Santarelli (5 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals) with 44 seconds left before halftime put South up 17-13. Then after C-G’s Landon Nawracaj made two free throws, Demirov beat the buzzer with a turnaround 3 on the right wing to extend the Gators' lead to 20-15.

“I think it was a big confidence boost,” Demirov said of his 3 to end the half. “When I was coming out after halftime, my teammates were saying we need to step up. My coaches were encouraging me too. Credit to them and my teammates for encouraging me to come out firing.”

Demirov opened the second half scoring by making two free throws, scoring on a drive and hitting a fadeaway jumper. Santarelli finished a layup in transition to cap an 8-0 run, hiking the South lead to 28-15, and the rout was on.

Buelna scored nine points in the third, finishing a pair of reverse layups on fastbreaks and draining a 3-pointer, and South was up 45-22 entering the fourth.

“I just thought in the second half we played tougher, our defense had a little more bite, we were anticipating better and getting out in transition,” LePage said. “We were sharing the ball, not settling for 3s like we were in the first half. We were putting an emphasis on driving the ball and getting paint touches.”

C-G senior guard Justice German, who sank a first quarter 3 for his only basket, said it felt like the 6-5 Santarelli had a “7-foot wingspan” playing at the top of South’s zone.

South’s offensive struggles included 9-of-36 shooting from the floor and 18 turnovers.

“We didn’t shoot very well,” German said. “We usually shoot way better. We had open shots. We didn’t make them, though.”

Adam Bauer was the Trojans’s only double-digit scorer with 12 points, including a 3-pointer, and five rebounds.

Carson Trivellini scored all 10 of his points in the second half for South.