Samuelson's big game not enough for Maine West

Senior scores 27 points in Warriors' 60-50 loss to Elk Grove

Maine West senior Alex Samuelson played as if there was tomorrow.

But when the clock struck 0:00 at the end of the fourth quarter Monday night, there really was no tomorrow for the Maine West boys basketball team following its 60-50 loss to Elk Grove in the Maine South Regional quarterfinals in Park Ridge.

Controlling the tempo on offense has been a theme for Samuelson for the majority of the season. And it was no different in the finale as the 6-foot-2 forward led the Warriors with 27 points, including 18 in the second half.

“I was able to get to the rim,” Samuelson said. “I was knocking down the mid-range jump shot a few times. I just thought that if they got me the ball, I could score when I wanted to.”

Samuelson was able to narrow the Elk Grove lead to 48-43 with 4 minutes, 20 seconds left to play. But the Grenadiers (12-17) featured another scoring machine in 6-foot-2 senior forward Donny Duschinsky, who matched Samuelson point-for-point to lead Elk Grove with 30 points, including 18 in the second half.
 
Duschinsky’s size and strength proved to be too much to handle for the Warriors (9-19), the No. 18 seed in the Niles West Sectional who also lost to No. 15 seed Elk Grove 52-44 Feb. 6.

“We knew that (he would be tough) going in,” Maine West coach Erik McNeill said of Duschinsky.”It’s a lot easier on paper than it is actually in the game. We tried different things. He’s tough when he’s inside. He’s just a tough matchup for us and we’ve had trouble all year trying to defend that type of player.”

Duschinsky led the Grenadiers with four points during an 8-3 run that gave Elk Grove a 56-46 lead with a little over two minutes remaining.

As their struggles to score continued and with the time running out, Maine West had to commit fouls down the stretch. Though Maine West was able to get key steals late in the game by Emmett Turner-Jackson and Conor Hart, the Warriors’ offense couldn’t cash in.   

“We couldn’t get a key stop and we couldn’t get a key basket outside of Alex,” McNeill said. “I really felt that their supporting cast did a nice job and we kind of struggled. It was nice to see Alex have the game that he had, but we need the other players to step up.”

Samuelson tallied the final six points for the Warriors, giving him 12 of his team’s 20 points in the fourth quarter.

“It was kind of me versus Donny,” Samuelson said. “I was just having a lot of fun out there, but once it was crunch time, we really needed to start scoring and the pressure started to come on. I kept scoring, but it was just didn’t work out for us.”
Maine West ended the first half trailing 30-24, but struggled to get the offense rolling as it didn’t get a basket until there was 2:30 left in the third quarter. Both teams had their offensive woes in the third period, as the Grenadiers mustered up nine points, while Samuelson scored all six of the Warriors’ points in the quarter.

“(I’m) just disappointed the season came to an end, Samuelson said. “I wish we were a little bit more successful during the season just to put us in a better position in the playoffs. That didn’t work out. And I thought we could come back and beat Elk Grove the second time around and it just didn’t happen for us.”

Junior guard/forward Odera Eneogwe contributed 10 points and shared the team lead with Samuelson with seven rebounds for the Warriors. Turner-Jackson added six points, followed by Conor Hart with four points and two rebounds.

Senior guard Brian Battaglia scored 15 points for the Grenadiers, followed by junior guard John Lorenz with six.

 While McNeill admitted there was plenty of inconsistency throughout the season, especially with one of the younger teams in the Central Suburban League North, never faulted the Warriors’ effort.

“I thought we had some bright spots throughout the year and the guys never stopped playing hard and that was evident tonight,” McNeill said.