PONTIAC — The first moment of basketball that seemed to really grab the attention of fans at the 94th Pontiac Holiday Tournament came from New Trier senior Danny Houlihan. The High Point recruit swished a long-range three-pointer on the run in the third quarter of the No. 10 Trevians’ 58-43 win against West Aurora in the first round on Monday.
Houlihan finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds and two assists. He’s been known as a deadly shooter throughout his high school career, the running mate to all-around senior Christopher Kirkpatrick, a Princeton recruit. Houlihan has expanded his game over the past month and New Trier is going to need him take on an even larger role the rest of the season. More of those special moments will be required.
Kirkpatrick, a Sun-Times’ All-Area selection last season, will miss the tournament with an injury and it is unknown when he will return.
“We are celebrating because [Kirkpatrick] hit the game-winning shot [last week in Arizona] and all of a sudden after the game something was wrong,” New Trier coach Scott Fricke said. “We couldn’t even enjoy winning out there.
“No excuses. Our guys have practiced really hard without him. We just have to come up with ways to replace that scoring and all the other things he gave us.”
The Trevians (11-1) jumped out to a 15-0 lead and dominated the first half. West Aurora (4-8) pulled within 34-37 midway through the third quarter on a three from Antonio Higgins. New Trier responded with a 10-0 burst which included two threes from Houlihan.
“We can still make a deep run here without [Kirkpatrick],” Houlihan said. “My goal is to be more of a leader now that Chris is out. I can keep improving on that.”
Elton Jaegerskog finished with nine points and eight rebounds for the Trevians and Matthew Logue scored nine. Denym Wallace, a 6-6 freshman, added 12 points.
“[Wallace] is going to be a really good player,” Fricke said. “He’s a solid start to the season but that was one of his better games.”
Junior Travis Brown led the Blackhawks with 14 points and six assists. Higgins finished with 10 points.
New Trier will face Homewood-Flossmoor in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.