Boys Basketball: Stagg overpowers Nazareth for title

Updated: November 26, 2011 5:27PM

Stagg junior Sean Dwyer has never let his height stop him from firing up three-pointers.

The 6-foot-6 forward demonstrated his long-range shooting Saturday to help Stagg capture its own John McBride Thanksgiving Classic in Palos Hills.

“It’s something I’ve been working on my whole career,” Dwyer said. “If I’m able to shoot the three it makes me a more versatile player. It’s something we all practice a lot.”

Dwyer, who was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, hit a pair of three-pointers in the opening minutes and the Chargers never trailed en route to beating Nazareth 62-49.

Stagg finished 4-0 in its season-opening round-robin tourney.

“It’s a good start,” Stagg coach John Daniels said. “We’ve only got two guys back from last year’s squad really. So in terms of new faces and guys learning the system, we’re relatively young. The key to the tournament was our defense. It was good to see the young kids compete like they did.”

Stagg led 19-12 after one quarter and Nazareth (1-3) never got closer than three points the rest of the way.

The Chargers made 5 of 7 three-point attempts in the first quarter and finished 9-of-18 for the game beyond the arc.

“We’ve always shot the ball well here at Stagg,” Daniels said. “We try to keep that tradition. We like the run-and-gun and shooting the three. We’re not quite Loyola Marymount from the 1990s, but we do like to shoot the threes.”

Brett Kaiser (17 points, four rebounds, two steals) and Steve Kubiak (15 points, three rebounds) were named to the all-tournament team for Stagg, while Dwyer (10 points, three rebounds, two steals), Kamil Barnas (six points, four rebounds, two steals) and Mike Scatena (seven points) also came up big.

John Bonk (18 points, five rebounds, four steals) paced the Roadrunners and made the all-tournament team, along with 7-foot freshman Tyler Jackson, who had seven points, three rebounds and three blocks Saturday. Zachary Manuel added 12 rebounds and six points in the loss.

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