Palatine took full advantage of homecourt advantage in beating Grayslake Central 65-31 in the first round of the Class 4A regional action Monday.

The No. 13-seed Pirates broke out to a 10-0 lead and never looked back in beating the 18th-seeded Rams, who closed out the season at 11-16.

“We wanted to get out to a good start,” said Palatine coach Eric Millstone. “We knew what they were capable of when they beat a good Grayslake North team last Thursday.”

Jake Moertl and Cortez Hogans made sure the Pirates stayed on course in the first quarter.

Hogans started the scoring with a putback basket. Moertel hit the first of his four 3s. John O’Shea had a putback, and Moertl followed with another 3.

Tony Crews, who led Grayslake Central with 10 points, hit a 3 before Hogans scored the final basket of the quarter for a 12-3 lead.

“Hats off to Palatine,” said Rams coach Kosta Kougias. “The held on to the momentum they had. We had some opportunities early but we couldn’t take advantage of them. They were too good of a team.”

The Pirates kept it going in the second quarter as O’Shea (16 points, 9 rebounds) scored 9 points , Lamon Berry had 7 of his 9 and Hogans 4 of his 11 (to go with a team-high 10 rebounds) in building a 32-14 halftime advantage.

Moertl and Hogans keyed an 11-4 spurt to start the third quarter to build a 43-18 lead with 4:33 left.

“We had to play our game,” said Moertl, who scored 14 points. “We had played our hardest defense and it carried over to the offense. We closed out our plays well.”

Next up for the 12-18 Pirates will be No. 2 seed Conant, which has beaten Palatine twice this year.

“We know what Conant’s going to bring,” said Millstone, “but that doesn’t make it any easier. They have a lot of good pieces to their team. We’re going to have to play a great game against a great team. That’s they way it’s supposed to be at this time of the year.”

Hogans know what it will take to beat the Cougars.

“We have to play hard in order to win,” said Hogans. “We have to be able to stop (Jimmy) Sotos and control their big men. We have to crash the boards like we did tonight. We have to prevent second-chance shots. We have to keep the momentum we had tonight for tomorrow’s game.”

Longtime fans feel that the play-in game that the Pirates played Monday helps in this setting.

“We got the first-game jitters out of the way by playing tonight,” said Moertl.

Schaumburg 44, Hoffman Estates 31: One year ago, Schaumburg’s Heze Trotter and his teammates witnessed Hoffman Estates make a deep postseason run on their home floor, highlighted by the Hawks capturing the school’s first regional crown in a decade.

It all started with a play-in victory — at Schaumburg’s expense.

For Trotter and his squad, the desire to see history repeat itself in reverse got off to a promising start.

Thanks in large part to 14-0 second quarter shutout, the 16th-seeded Saxons eliminated the 17th-seeded Hawks 44-31on their home floor in a Class 4A regional play-in game Monday night. Schaumburg advances to a Tuesday regional semifinal against top-seeded Fremd.

“We came in with a mindset that we know that we’re capable of playing with anyone and that if we play our game we’re more than capable of beating anyone,” Trotter, a 6-1 sophomore, said.

It was a point that his coach concurred with.

“We came ready to play tonight,” Schaumburg coach Wade Heisler said. “We were really focused, and it showed out there.”

The Saxons (11-16) held Hoffman Estates scoreless in the second quarter, part to an even larger run of 26 unanswered points that started when they were trailing 6-2 early in the game.

After an inside hoop from senior forward Dan Pyde, Trotter and senior forward Kameron Powell traded baskets twice, giving Schaumburg a 10-0 run that closed out the opening eight minutes of play.

In the decisive second quarter, two of Trotter’s team-high 10 points from the free throw line came in between 6 points each from sophomore Michael Hodges and junior Jerry Clark, which extended the lead to 26-6 at the break.

Both Heisler and Trotter gave credit to their team’s defensive effort for the Hawks’ 8 turnovers and 0-for-5 shooting in the second quarter.

“I need to give special credit to both Jerry and (junior guard) Brandon Barber. They did a real good job of getting us ignited on defense,” Heisler said. “It gave us a huge lift.”

The first of 6-2 sophomore Rudra Patel’s 3 triples ended the scoring drought for Hoffman (8-19) with 3:17 remaining in the third. He finished with a game-high 11 points.

“They just simply outplayed us,” Hoffman Estates coach Luke Yanule said. “You just can’t make the mistakes that we made and expect to win.

“We have some great kids with a tremendous effort that will need to match their level of commitment in the off-season if we are to get to that next step forward.”

— Lou Nunez, Jr.