Boys basketball: Schaumburg starts new year with a rout of Downers Grove South
It was a great start to the new year for the Schaumburg boys basketball team, but a disappointing start to 2025 for Downers Grove South on Friday night at the MSL-WSC Challenge in Buffalo Grove.
The Saxons came out hot right away by taking a 15-4 lead after one quarter before building a commanding 31-12 lead over the cold-shooting Mustangs at halftime.
Downers Grove South (8-6) could never make a serious comeback in the second half as Schaumburg (10-5) took a 45-20 lead into the fourth quarter before cruising to a lopsided 55-30 nonconference victory.
The Mustangs were coming off a hard-fought 69-64 loss to St. Laurence (13-3) in the consolation championship game of York’s Tosh tournament on New Year's Eve. But they came out flat Friday as a steal and dunk by Schaumburg junior Cam Anderson made the score 13-4 late in the first quarter.
The Saxons kept that momentum going as 6-foot-7 senior Zion Young hit a 3-pointer for a 29-9 lead late in the second quarter before a reverse layup by teammate Tony Horton made put Downers Grove South in a 19-point deficit at halftime.
“Credit to Schaumburg, they came out with a lot more energy and a lot more effort on both ends,” said Downers Grove South coach Zach Miller. “We just kind of were stuck in mud, we came out flat and I would have liked to seen a little more juice in all three phases of the game.”
A driving basket by Adam Flowers cut the lead to 31-14 early in the third quarter. But Schaumburg went on a 14-4 run to take its biggest lead at 45-18 on four free throws by Javonte McCoy late in the period. The Saxons built a 51-20 lead as the final 3:50 was played with a running clock.
“They almost beat St. Laurence this week so that's a really good team we beat tonight, and we took a step forward,” said Schaumburg coach Jason Tucker, whose team hosts Elgin at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. “Hopefully our second half of the season will be better. (Young) is averaging 11 rebounds a game on the season, his presence down there is just big, and he has done such a great job of committing himself to get in great shape.”
Kaleb Kasperiunas scored a team-high 8 points late in the game for the Mustangs while teammates Sean Day and Wyatt Wawro scored 7 and 6 points, respectively. Schaumburg's Jason Jancik scored 5 points while teammate Aiden Patterson had 4 points. Downers Grove South's Keon Maggit had 4 points.
“We wanted to buy into our defense with our 2-3 zone, and we're going to start moving the ball more,” Young said. “We enjoy playing basketball with each other, and we have a lot better team chemistry right now.”