Boys Basketball: Maine East will go young the rest of the way

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Park Ridge Friday 1/27/12 Maine East's#2 Jordan Jones and#22 Ezeke Omeke apply pressure to Maine West's#14 Conor Hart as he looks for an out let.| Jerry Daliege~for Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 3, 2012 8:25AM

Maine East head basketball coach David Genis is close to finishing up his second season.

Genis replaced Glenn Olson, who pole-valuted over to Niles North, leaving Genis with a big rebuilding project. The second season for Genis was similar to his first, as the varsity program takes its lumps and bruises and losses by some wide margins.

It was the same story Friday night against Central Suburban North rival Maine West. The Demons started the contest slowly, caught up and went cold from the field.

“We’re at a point this season where I’m beginning to bring up and use some sophomores and freshman.” Genis said. “The starters against Maine West consisted of two freshmen, a sophomore, one junior and senior Aaron Shannon.”

Maine West ended up running off 16 consecutive points in the second quarter leading up to a decisive 59-41 win. The defeat was Maine East’s seventh straight, dropping the Demons to 4-14, 0-7.

Maine East never led but tied the Warriors four times in the first half behind offensive threat Evan Nazzal. The red-hot junior sank 3-of-4 attempts from three-point range to tie the score for the final time at 19-19. Maine West, following a timeout, erupted for 16 unanswered points.

Conor Hart penetrated to the hoop and Kevin Garcia drained three-pointers to post Maine West to a 35-16 lead at the break. Maine West quickly climbed into double bonus and converted 9-of-15 at the line, while Maine East went 0-for-2.

“Since our first game in January, we played pretty good basketball in the early stages of the game,” said Genis, “and then hit a lull and that’s when our opponents take advantage of our lack of scoring power.”

Maine East opened the second half with a 1-2-2 zone that made up some ground and cut the Maine West lead to 38-26. But the Warriors brought just too much firepower.

For the second straight week, freshman Abby George started at point guard. George, the smallest player on the court, scored seven points and dished three assists playing almost the entire game.

“I look for George to play at the point the balance of the season,” Genis said. “I believe we had all-underclassman on the floor at one point in the second half. The more playing time together, the quicker we’ll grow.”

Maine West focused on stopping Shannon, who poured in 20 points during their first meeting, but this time was limited to 10 points, all in the second half.

“Aaron is in a scoring slump,” admitted Genis. “He’s been pressing in the last few games. Aaron is still our most productive scorer and with the game on the line he’ll probably take the shot to win the game.”

Nazzal led Maine East with 12 points and Ezeke Omeke totaled nine.

Maine East earlier in the week stumbled to Buffalo Grove 64-39 in a nonconference clash. The Bisons tossed in 10 threes, while Omeke paced the Demons with 16 points.