Boys Basketball: Immaculate Conception cruises past Gators

• Reprints

Updated: February 22, 2012 12:14PM

Immaculate Conception came into River Grove on a mission, and they accomplished it as the Knights cruised to a 75-35 win over Guerin Prep. That victory coupled with Montini’s 52-49 win over Walther Lutheran clinched the Suburban Christian Conference’s Blue Division for the Knights as they secured their first conference title since 1967.

“It was a big game, and we really wanted it,” said Immaculate Conception head coach Darren Howard. “We had one goal, to put those 45 years behind us and go from there. We were getting updates throughout the game, and Walther was up at the half. We play them next Friday so I’m glad we clinched tonight and that game won’t mean as much now.”

The Knights (21-2, 9-0) scored the first six points of the ball game and held off a short Guerin rally to take a 15-6 lead by quarter’s end. Senior John Cheng scored eight of his game-high 14 points to start off the second and build a 17-point Knights lead in the first 1:27 of the period. Seniors Brian Harvey and Dan RIbando along with junior Demetrius Carr each had 10 points for I.C.

“We really wanted to work on our defense because we needed to pick up on our man press,” Howard said. “When we do that we’re pretty tough, but we’ve been pretty lax the last few games on defense.

Guerin (3-19, 0-9) was led by junior Andrew Rangel’s seven points as they just couldn’t get much going the whole night.