This past weekend the Maine West Warrior basketball team dropped a pair of Mid‑Suburban League contests to Prospect, 55 to 50, and Conant, 57 to 48. The varsity produced a determined rally in the final minutes of the Prospect game, but the clock ran out before they were able to overcome the Knights' lead. A rash of fouls in the final period against Conant enabled the Cougars to post their second victory over Maine this season.

The Warriors employed a 2‑1‑2 zone defense in the Prospect game that kept the ball away from Knight Tom Lunsted, who was able to score only 16 points, well under his league‑leading average. Ken Mueller led the Warrior charges with determined defensive play and an 18 point effort.

Maine had a balanced scoring attack against Conant, as Manfly, Moehling, and Fritz sank 13, 12, and 11 points respectively.

On the weekend before the Conant and Prospect matches, the Warriors encountered two of the powers of the Conference, Forest View and Palatine. The Warriors played well in both contests, but fell to Forest View's rebounding, 57 to 45, and Palatine's beautifully executed fast break, 62 to 57.

Maine was in the Palatine game from start to finish and with only twenty seconds left in the game were losing by three points. Palatine, however, was able to stall out the remainder of the hotly‑contested contest.

The Mainites led through most of the Forest View game, through accurate outside shooting and aggressive rebounding.

This produced a 23 to 22 halftime advantage; and at the conclusion of the third quarter, Maine was down by only 35 to 33. A revitalized Jim Baumgardt of Forest View then led his teammates to victory through his rebounding efforts, however.

On Friday, February 7, Maine grabbed their first Conference win of the season, as they completely dominated Wheeling's Wildcats, 55 to 44. The Warriors built a 21 to 7 lead in the first half against Wheeling and held off the Wildcats in the final two periods despite a 17 point performance by Mark Newman of Wheeling.

The Warrior point production was led by Ken Mueller with 15 points and Pete Kulik with 14.

Last week Coach Blake's sophomore basketball team became the Conference champions when they defeated Palatine 67 to 45. This win brought their season record to 7 and 4, and their Conference record to 4 and 1. This year's sophomore team included John Thvedt, Art Munzer, Bill Robertson, Greg Essig, John Carl, Tom Martin, Bruce Kaechele, Kurt Felde, Lou Guido, Dan Christensen, and Ted Waskowski.


M.S.L. Varsity Standings
Prospect                       8-1
Forest View                 8-1
|Palatine                       5-4
Conant                         3-6
Wheeling                     2-7
Maine West                 1-8