AJ Demirov had a decent look at the basket and a chance to win it for Crystal Lake South at the buzzer on Wednesday in McHenry, but the shot didn’t fall.
It was that kind of night for the Gators, who shot 4 of 30 from three-point range and never found any rhythm offensively against the Warriors’ swarming defense.
McHenry earned a 51-49 win against Crystal Lake South, an early sign that the Fox Valley conference may be wide open this season. The Gators were 18-0 in the conference last season and 31-5 the past two years.
Adam Anwar, a 6-7 junior, is the Fox Valley’s new star. He had 19 points and seven rebounds to lead McHenry (6-0, 3-0).
“Playing inside and outside is my thing,” Anwar said. “I just found the open holes wherever they were.”
Anwar is averaging 20 points this season while shooting more than 40% from three-point range.
“We want him to float and go in and out,” Warriors coach Corky Card said. “Any shot he gets is good for us.”
Demirov, one of the area’s leading scorers the past two seasons, was held to just nine points.
“You just want to make him fight for everything,” Card said. “He’s such a good player. I can’t tell you how many times he has hit shots like the one he took at the end. We just tried to make it difficult for him.”
“They did a great job guarding [Demirov] and not giving him clean looks,” Gators coach Matt LePage said. “He did a good job all year of getting guys going and then he finds his scoring after. It just didn’t happen for him tonight.”
Crystal Lake South (5-2, 2-1) was 4-for-30 from three-point range and had 19 turnovers.
“It’s early December and we are still sorting things out,” LePage said. “We played a little frantic at times and looked uncomfortable. For the first time all year. Even against a good Waukegan team, we didn’t look that frantic.”
Senior Caleb Jett’s basket with 2:15 left put McHenry ahead 48-41, but the Warriors struggled to hold on to the lead. Crystal Lake South sophomore Carson Trivellini scored with 33 seconds left to cut the lead to 50-49, but that was as close as it would get.
“They did a really good job of scrapping to get back into it,” Card said. “We turned the ball over a couple of times. It was a good learning experience for us tonight.”
Anwar wasn’t the only promising, tall underclassman on the court. Crystal Lake South has a pair of identical twin freshmen, Johnathan and Ryan Morgan. They are 6-5 and strong.
Cooper Buelna led the Gators with 13 points and nine rebounds. Trivellini scored 11 and Anthony Santarelli added 11 points and six rebounds.
Jett scored nine for McHenry and senior Connor McLean added eight points off the bench.
“Getting this early win against the reigning conference champion is a huge confidence booster for us,” Anwar said.