By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
The York boys basketball team saw its season come to a close after a tough 52-49 overtime loss to Riverside-Brookfield in the semifinals of the Class 4A Chicago Curie regional.
York led 10-7 after the first quarter and 21-10 at halftime. R-B outscored York 14-10 in the third quarter and 17-10 in the fourth quarter to force overtime. R-B held an 11-8 advantage in the extra period and hit a shot at the buzzer to win the game.
Erik Cohn led the Dukes with 18 points, while Nick Kosich and John Milling each had seven points. Angelo Martucci and Sam Walsh each added six points.
Walsh pulled in seven rebounds, while Milling had six and Cohn had five. Kosich and Martucci each had three assists, while Kosich led the way with three steals. Cohn hit three 3-pointers in the game.
“It was a really good game. It’s unfortunate to lose that way,” said York coach Vince Doran. “It was a tough way to go out, but a good learning experience for our younger players.”
Doran said a scoring drought in the third quarter was injurious. “We got up 21-10 at half and then had a real cold streak in the third quarter that really hurt us. And then it was back and forth after that,” he said. “We defended great in the first half, but if you look at the stats we shot 5-for-21 or something like that from three. We didn’t shoot the ball that well.”
In earlier play, the Dukes lost 68-62 to Willowbrook as part of the West Suburban Conference crossover series of games. York led 18-10 after the first quarter and 39-31 at halftime.
Willowbrook went on a 20-10 run in the third quarter and outscored the Dukes 17-13 in the fourth quarter.
Cohn led the Dukes with 22 points. Nate Shockey had 14 points, while Walsh had 10 points. Hassan Iqbal had six points. Cohn and Walsh each grabbed five rebounds. Iqbal and Shockey each had two steals. Shockey made three 3-pointers, while Cohn made two.
Overall, Doran was pleased with what transpired this season. “We had a great season,” he said. “As young as we are, sometimes you have to lose to learn how to win. All four of our seniors did a great job leading the younger kids. It will be other guys’ turn to step up next year. We’ll have plenty of seniors next season.”
York was involved in a litany of close games this season. “We were super-competitive this year,” said Doran. “The kids did a good job of coming to play every night. We won some tough ones and lost some tough ones. Overall, I’m happy with the effort and certainly proud of how our kids played. The future is bright. We were predominantly juniors with a sophomore and a freshman up with us, and to play like we did is hard to do with the schedule we play. We were very competitive and had a good year in spite of being so young.”
With a large contingent returning, Doran said expectations will be high next season. “We need to stay healthy,” he said. “We have a lot of good players coming back. We’re looking forward to having a great off-season and learning from some of the things that happened this past year and becoming better from that.”
Doran lauded the play of Kosich, who played injured in the playoff game, as well as Cohn and Walsh.
“I thought Nick Kosich was great and Erik Cohn was outstanding,” he said. “Erik really came on strong at the end of the year and had some big games for us. He has the potential to explode this summer. He has a ton of ability and works hard and is coachable. He played really well down the stretch. Sam Walsh was great in the playoff game. He had his best game of the year. When you see the younger kids like this playing well, I think everybody is excited about next year. We should be very competitive next year.”
Kosich and Angelo Martucci were named to the all-West Suburban Conference Silver Division team.
