Gentry, St. Charles East run by East Aurora
Cole Gentry can do many things on a basketball court.
Some of his best attributes include handling the ball, setting up teammates for open looks and an ability to get to the free-throw line.
Gentry, a 5-11 senior guard, scored 16 of his game-high 30 points in the fourth quarter to help preserve St. Charles East's 79-71 victory over East Aurora (0-1) in Monday night's opening round of the 56th annual Ron Johnson Thanksgiving Tournament in St. Charles.
While the Tomcats staged a fourth-quarter comeback, whittling an 11-point deficit to 59-54 with 6:12 remaining, they were unable to climb all the way back thanks in part to Gentry's superb floor play.
Gentry connected on 14 of 16 free throws in the fourth quarter and added a driving layup that extended the Saints' lead to 66-57 with 4:21 left.
"Cole is our human press breaker," said Saints coach Patrick Woods. "He's just fast and can handle the ball. It's very hard for anyone to guard him."
Nursing a single-digit lead down the stretch, the Saints repeatedly turned to Gentry time to knife through the Tomcats' pressure defense.
"That's always a nice weapon to have," Woods said of Gentry, who added 6 rebounds and 5 assists.
Gentry relished the opportunity to have the ball in his hands when it mattered most.
"They were playing screens and forcing it away from me so a lot of times I could separate from the guard right away off the dribble and I had a good lane to the basket," he said.
The Saints connected on 19 of 22 fourth-quarter free throws and finished 26 of 32 for the contest.
"Not just this game - that's going to be a big thing all season," said Gentry. "There are probably five games per year where you can lose on free throws if you miss them. You don't want to look back after the game and say we could have won if we had hit them."
Making fourth-quarter free throws with the game hanging in the balance isn't always easy.
"A lot of it is focus because you know everybody is tired at that point," said Gentry. "If you can be tough and knock them in, it's big."
St. Charles East (1-0) also received major contributions from senior forward Mick Vyzral (12 points, 11 rebounds), senior guards Jake Asquini (11 points) and Jake Clodi (8 points), senior center Jack Bronec (3 points, 10 rebounds) and junior guard James McQuillan (8 points).
Clodi knocked down 2 of the Saints' 4 first-quarter 3-pointers while Asquini, Gentry, McQuillan and Vyzral each drained long-distance shots in the second quarter.
St. Charles East led 40-27 at halftime.
"We've been working a lot on shooting," said Gentry. "We know we're good shooters but we still have to work on it. We were making a lot of extra passes. We were passing up good shots for great shots."
Adrian Smith scored 16 of his team-high 23 points in the second half for the Tomcats, who also got double-figure production from Anthony Peters (13 points), Maurice Nichols (12) and Ron McBride (10).
"East Aurora is much-improved from last year," said Woods, whose team will face Schaumburg Wednesday night. "They played really hard and kept fighting back. I'm glad we played them early and not later in the year."