Seneca Advances To I-8 Final
Irish Top Lisle For 65 th Straight Win
By Bill Lidinsky
It’s pretty rare when Griffan Callahan and Seth Evans don’t notch a point collectively in the first quarter of play in any one basketball game.
Couple that with the unusual occurrence that neither one of the Seneca High School varsity hoop stars tallied in double digit scoring and you might be led to believe that the undefeated Fighting Irish could have been in some trouble Tuesday night at Herscher during the Interstate Eight Conference Tournament semifinal matchup with Lisle.
Fear not Seneca fans, for the Irish proved that despite the shortcomings Tuesday of their heralded leaders against the Lions, they are a formidable foe none the less.
Even though Callahan and Evans couldn’t score in the first period and ended up with only eight and seven points respectively, Seneca was able to capitalize on their usual staunch defense and the offensive performance by senior Ben Paulsen to lift them to a 45-39 victory over Lisle. The victory marked the 65 th straight win for the Irish as they now stand three victories shy of tying the IHSA state record of 68 consecutive triumphs.
Paulsen tallied a game high 14 points, while stepping up to lead his team into the finals of the inaugural I-8 Tournament championships.
“Tonight wasn’t Seth and Grif’s night because Lisle played such great defense on them,” Paulsen said. “Coach Evans talked to me and told me I needed to step up. I was able to hit some shots and I did the best that I could do and we were able to come away with another win.”
Lisle came out on fire and took an early 9-3 lead on three straight three-point shots within the first three minutes of play. Meanwhile, the Lions threw a curve at Seneca defensively double teaming Evans and Callahan every time they touched the ball. The result was a 14-11 Lisle lead after one quarter of play.
“I knew if we hit some shots early it would boost our confidence level and it did,” said Lisle head basketball coach Mark LaScala. “But defensively we didn’t want Evans and Callahan to get into the paint so we decided to try to take that away from them. It worked for awhile, but their great defense is really their bread and butter and they started to lock down on us and we had trouble scoring once that happened.”
Callahan finally was able to get going in the second quarter as he scored six points to bring the Irish back to a 24-23 advantage at halftime.
Then in the third period, Paulsen notched five tallies including a three with 30 seconds to play in the quarter to give Seneca a 35-30 advantage with eight minutes to go.
But Lisle wouldn’t die and pulled to within one at 37-36 with 3:40 to play before the Irish garnered the last eight-of-11 points to win by six.
“Lisle did a great job defensively tonight. They were doubling Seth and Griffan every time they touched the ball,” said Seneca head basketball coach Doug Evans. “But our kids held their composure down the stretch and were able to make them pay for all the double teaming finally. Overall however, Lisle really gave us a good challenge tonight and we were fortunate to have guys like Ben step up when we needed them.”
Senior Nick Andreatta and sophomore Josh Higgins chipped in with seven points apiece to compliment the Seneca team effort as the Irish moved to 20-0 on the 2006-07 campaign. Lisle (14-8) was led in scoring by Derek Leonard with 12, including four triples.
Next up for Seneca is the I-8 Tournament championship against Herscher. The Tigers defeated Westmont 53-28 in the other semifinal matchup on Tuesday.
Originally the title game was scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday, but most likely will be moved to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday due to the unfortunate death of one of the Herscher students in an auto accident on Monday night.
Visitation for the deceased will be on Friday in Herscher, thus moving the championship game to Saturday out of respect.
On Jan. 16 at Seneca, the Irish upended the Tigers easily 49-30. But this time the contest is on Herscher’s home floor with the 65 game winning streak on the line.
“We kind of want that streak to get over with, but at the same time we don’t want to lose,” Paulsen said. “We don’t want to be second best. We really want to get that state record. We didn’t come all this way for nothing, plus we want to win the first ever I-8 Tournament championship. Hopefully it will all work out for us.”