Dukes continuing to get contributions from many.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
The York boys basketball team headed into the holidays with plenty to build upon.
“We’ve been in every game,” said York coach Vince Doran. “We’re happy about our level of competitive play, which is encouraging.”
Through its first nine games, York was 5-4 overall and 1-1 in West Suburban Conference Silver Division play.
In recent action, the Dukes dropped a tough 58-56 double-overtime conference game to Downers Grove North.
York trailed 8-6 after the first quarter and 20-17 at halftime. York found itself down 35-30 heading into the fourth quarter, but forced overtime after outscoring the Trojans 17-12 in the final period. Both teams scored six points in the first overtime and Downers North held the one-bucket edge in the second.
Sam Walsh led the Dukes with 13 points. Erik Cohn and Nate Shockey each scored 12 points, while Angelo Martucci had eight points and Nick Kosich finished with six points.
York shot 43.8 percent from the 3-point line with Kosich, Cohn and Shockey each making two 3-pointers. Mike Pedote made one 3-pointer. The Dukes also shot 70.4 percent from the free-throw line (19-for-27).
Cohn had six rebounds, while Walsh had five rebounds. Martucci had five assists and Shockey had three steals. York shot 37.5 percent from the field.
In earlier action, York lost 73-65 to West Aurora in non-conference action. The Dukes led 18-17 after the first quarter and 42-33 at halftime. But West Aurora outscored York 13-7 in the third quarter and 27-16 in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.
Kosich led the Dukes with 18 points. Martucci and Cohn each had 13 points, while Walsh had 12 points.
York shot 10-for-16 (62.5 percent) from the 3-point line with Kosich making four 3s. Cohn had three 3-pointers, Martucci had two and John Milling had one. York shot 42.9 percent from the field.
Walsh had eight rebounds, while Shockey had five rebounds. Kosich had five assists. Milling had four assists and Walsh had three steals.
York also lost 42-35 to Benet Academy in non-conference play. York trailed 17-13 at halftime and 29-27 going into the fourth quarter.
Milling led the Dukes with 11 points. Cohn added 10 points, while Kosich had five points. Milling made three 3-pointers in the game. Cohn and Pedote each had one 3-pointer. Kosich was tops in rebounding with five and also had three assists. York shot 31.4 percent from the field.
“I think we are capable of shooting the ball better from three. We’ve been very streaky,” said Doran. “We also need to get a little better at rebounding the ball collectively. We are smaller as a team. It does take more of a team effort and we certainly are focusing on that right now.”
Doran continues to see progress overall on the offensive end. “We are attacking the rim pretty well. We’re not always finishing, but we’ve shown we have a fairly quick and athletic perimeter that gets to the rim, which is a good thing,” he said. “Our kids are giving a great effort. At this point through nine games, every game has been competitive and we’re playing some good teams.”
Doran has been pleased with the defensive progress as well. “Defensively we have been pretty good,” he said. “We’re creating a lot of offense with our defense, which certainly is another positive. We’re still young. We have one senior who plays heavy minutes. We’re pretty young and we lack experience. Now, we have a great chance to do well in the tournament (Jack Tosh Holiday Classic) and head into that second half and continue to improve throughout the year.”
York has received helping hands from a variety of sources. “I think our scoring is very consistent,” he said. “We’re pretty balanced. Nick Kosich has done a real nice job scoring the ball more than in previous years. That’s nice to see. Nick, Angelo, Sam and Erik—all those kids are capable of scoring. Nate Shockey has been pretty consistent as well.”
Doran has no qualms playing top-level teams early in the season.
“It’s great,” he said. “I would rather lose to really good teams than beat up on some teams not nearly as good. You want to learn from the losses. The great thing is we found out a lot about the team early here as a coaching staff. We’re going to tweak some things. We know the things we are doing well and what we need to improve on. Playing West Aurora, and Benet and in our holiday tournament and playing Jacobs and Stevenson and the teams in our conference always is a good thing. It gets you ready. I think what we’ve done here is very positive at this point. We lost to Downers in double overtime and then had our best practice of the year Saturday morning. The kids are doing all the right things and I think good things are going to happen for this team.”
Through nine games York was shooting 40 percent from the field and 33.9 percent from the 3-point line. Kosich was leading the team in scoring at 12.7 points per game. Cohn was next at 10.1 points, while Martucci was at 9.8 points and Walsh was at 9.0 points. Shockey was averaging 7.1 points. Walsh was the team’s leading rebounder at 4.8 per game. Kosich was tops in assists with 22, while Martucci was leading the team in steals with 17. Walsh and Milling were tops in charges taken with three each.
Kosich was leading the team in 3-pointers made with 19 (38 percent), while Cohn had 12 (32.4 percent). Cohn was tops in free-throw percentage at 84.6 (11-for-13), while Shockey was at 80 percent (16-for-20). Also worth noting was Martucci at 73.8 percent (31-for-42).
York is in the midst of hosting its annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic. The quarterfinals will be held today with the semifinals on Friday and the consolation, third-place and championship games slated for Saturday. The Tosh championship game is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday night in the main Campbell gym.
