Wheeling overcomes 35 from Maine West's Acevedo
Wheeling junior forward Dylan Draka scored 21 points and teammate Jalen Dennis had 14, including a floater in the lane as time ran out to send Tuesday's nonconference boys basketball matchup against visiting Wheeling into overtime.
The Wildcats took control in the extra session, outscoring the Warriors 15-8 in an 84-77 victory.
Wheeling needed big scoring efforts to offset a season- and career-high scoring performance by Maine West senior guard Matt Acevedo. He made a pair of 3-pointers and finished with 35 points, which included a 13-for-14 effort at the free throw line.
Marion Johnson had 14 points and Angel Kelly 10 for Maine West.
Acevedo played the whole way but was receiving medical attention after the game for a suspected broken nose.
Wheeling wraps up its Mid-Suburban East slate with game at East Division champ Hersey, while Maine West (6-18) hosts Niles North in Central Suburban North play.
Niles North 69, Prospect 57: Frankie Mack led Prospect with 19 points and Kyle Beyak had 14, but it wasn't enough in nonconference play hosted by the Vikings.
Niles North had big first and fourth quarters, with 23 and 21, respectively.
Peter Fusilero contributed 9 points for Prospect (11-12), and Matt Szuba had a team-high 6 rebounds.
Niles North got to the foul line 27 times and made 15 shots, while Prospect was 9-for-10 at the line.
Junior guard Crishawn Cook led Niles North with 19 points, and senior guard Malik DuPree had 17.
Barrington 61, Grant 36: For the first time coach Bryan Tucker's tenure at Barrington, the Broncos have reached 20 wins.
Barrington raced past host Grant 61-36 in nonconference boys basketball Tuesday in Fox Lake.
Junior forward Rapolas Ivanauskas led the way with 13 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocked shots in three quarters for the Broncos (20-6), while Chris Lester had 13 points and 8 boards.
"It's time to get over that hurdle," said Tucker, who'd had one 19-win season and a couple with 18. "It does feel good to get to 20, but we still have one more conference game, a crossover game and the playoffs. It's a nice thing to have 20 - but there's got to be a different focus moving forward."
The Broncos opened the game by jumping to an 8-4 lead. Grant (3-23) responded with an 8-4 run of its own as Ben Kusiak, who finished with a team-high 12 points, scored on a layup which tied it at 12-12 with 2:02 left in the first quarter.
Tucker called a timeout quickly.
"Grant did a nice job executing," Tucker said. "We weren't very aggressive defensively. (Grant) ran their stuff and knocked down their shots.
"By the second quarter, we did a nice job pressuring the ball and we were able to disrupt their flow. That got us some runs, easy looks and some separation."
The Broncos score the last 5 points in the opening quarter for a 17-12 lead - and that was just the beginning of their surge.
Barrington scored the next 16 points, including a 3 from Tristen Becker as the Broncos took a 33-12 lead with 2:47 left in the first half.
Kusiak broke the nearly eight-minute Grant scoring drought by sinking a couple of free throws, but the Bulldogs still trailed 37-18 at halftime.
- Rusty Silber
Latin 59, Christian Liberty 47: The Chargers kept it close but couldn't quite complete a comeback in dropping a nonconference contest.
Christian Liberty got within 5 with two minutes left, but Latin made 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to protect the lead.
Sam Silva made pair of 3s and finished with 13 points, and Paul Weiss had 12 for the Chargers.
Streamwood 56, Elk Grove 53: The host Sabres finished with a 16-point fourth quarter to pick up a nonconference victory.
Elk Grove's Dan Hadler led all scorers with 16 points and teammate Joey Gatziolis had 9.
Freshman Phil Cruz led Streamwood (3-24) with 14 points and Joey O'Halloran had 10.