Michael O’Brien’s high school basketball notebook

Young vs. Duncanville, Texas ended in nearly the same way Young vs. Morgan Park did. DJ Steward plays an excellent game but then can’t quite pull off the game-winner at the end.

Steward’s three-pointer at the buzzer didn’t fall on Saturday at the Chicago Elite Classic and the Dolphins lost 57-55. The Duke recruit stepped up in the fourth quarter and scored or assisted on Young’s first nine points. He finished with 21 points and eight rebounds.

“I was trying to knock down a shot and win the game,” Steward said. “You aren’t going to make every shot so you just have to move on.”

The rest of the Dolphins aren’t scoring consistently. The defense and rebounding aren’t quite there yet either. But again, Young is two shots away from being undefeated.

“We have a ways to go but our two losses are to really good teams,” Young coach Tyrone Slaughter said. “I’m happy with where we are. I don’t know what the rankings will hold, we will probably be number 30 next week. Our philosophy is always the same: We load the schedule up and we are ready to play in March. We’ve had some success doing that.

Saturday’s top games

Baltimore St. Frances 61, No. 4 Simeon 57: A fairly excellent first half from the Wolverines didn’t hold up. Simeon led for three quarters until second-chance points started to catch up to them. The Wolverines were out-rebounded 61-57 and struggled to score in the fourth quarter. Ahamad Bynum scored 20 and Jeremiah Williams added 10 points and 10 rebounds for Simeon.

No. 1 Bloom 84, Pace Academy, Ga. 54: Not sure what the ticket-buying public thought of this game. They couldn’t have been impressed. The Blazing Trojans rolled behind 30 points from Dante Maddox Jr. and 12 from Keshawn Williams and Christian Shumate.

Taft 61, Niles West 60: The Eagles win on Matt Lesch’s three-pointer with 11 seconds left. He finished with 22. Taft is 6-1.

Schaumburg 48, Huntley 40: Shamaree Brown with another nice game for the Saxons, scoring 21. Uchenna Egekeze led the Red Raiders with 16. Apparently Chris Hodges did not play for Schaumburg.

Oswego 60, Quincy 49: Impressive road win for the Panthers, who erased a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter.

Aurora Central 62, St. Edward 54: Donovan Gurnloh scored 25 and Colin Dean added 21 points.

Corliss 67, Rantoul 27: Dominant road win for the Trojans. Na’shawn Townsen had 19 points and six assists and Armani Martin added 10 points.

Hinsdale South 51, St. Francis 33: The Hornets are 6-0. Aaron Tims led the way with 15 points. Billy Durkin and James Ruzicka each added 13 points.

No. 19 Fenwick 79, Mount Carmel 59: Another big game for Trey Pettigrew with a career-high 33 points. He made seven three-pointers. Bryce Hopkins added 15.

No. 7 Notre Dame 61, Hinsdale Central 40: The Dons bounce back behind 17 points from Troy D’Amico and Louis Lesmond.

No. 5 Stevenson 53, Westinghouse 43: The Warriors acquitted themselves pretty well this weekend without Devin Davis, but the record is starting to get ugly.

No. 11 Curie 82, Callaway, Miss. 75: Ramean Hinton scores 18 and grabs 11 rebounds as the Condors pick up a nice win a the prestigious Marshall County Hoopfest.