Boys Basketball: Burns ignites Pirates in win over Leyden
By Chuck Fieldman cfieldman@pioneerlocal.com January 21, 2012 10:52PM
Leyden's Omar Lozoya shoots a basket as Proviso East's Sterling Brown applies pressure. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 2, 2012 4:11PM
First-year Proviso East coach Donnie Boyce calls senior point guard Paris Burns one of the unsung heroes of the Pirates.
But Burns provided one of the loudest songs of the night Saturday when the Pirates defeated host Leyden, 70-49, in a West Suburban Gold game to remain unbeaten.
Burns scored a team-best 17 points and provided some floor leadership for Proviso East (16-0, 6-0), which outscored Leyden (10-7, 3-4) in the fourth quarter, 23-9, after the Eagles had battled back in the third quarter to make it a contest.
“We did let them get back in it in the second half, but I like the way we responded in the fourth quarter,” Boyce said. “We turned up the pressure on defense and took back control of the game, and Paris came up with some key plays for us when we needed them.”
Burns said the Pirates knew they had to be ready to go against Leyden, after beating Downers Grove South two days earlier in a key conference game.
“We just try to stay focused on our goals, and winning the conference is one of the big ones,” Burns said. “We’re really not paying attention much to being undefeated, so there isn’t any pressure from that.”
Boyce said he knew his team could have a letdown against after beating Downers South.
“This easily could have been one of those trap games,” he said. “Leyden had a great game plan. They tried to run the clock and slow things down, but we were able to pick things up again in the fourth quarter after they made their run.”
After Leyden’s Alex Herrera (game-high 22 points) hit two three-point baskets early in the game to spark the Eagles to a 6-2 lead, Proviso East got into gear and went on a 12-0 run for a 14-6 advantage. The Pirates led 22-12 at the end of the first quarter.
Proviso East scored the first four points of the second quarter to post a 26-12 lead, but the two teams pretty much traded points the remainder of the period as the Pirates led 40-29 at halftime.
Herrera missed a free throw with 1.4 seconds left in the first half, stopping his Leyden record of consecutive made foul shots at 38.
The Pirates went up, 46-31, on a layup by Paris Lee (14 points) with 4:51 remaining in the third quarter. But the Eagles scored the next seven points to pull within 46-38 and were within 47-40 by the end of the period.
A 14-4 run by Proviso East to open the fourth quarter put the game out of reach for Leyden. Sterling Brown scored 8 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter for the Pirates.
“They’re very athletic and very good, just like we expected,” Leyden coach Bill Heisler said of the Pirates. “When it was a half-court game, we competed pretty well, but their constant pressure wears on you.”
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