Elk Grove finds a way in thriller against Rolling Meadows

If Elk Grove plays as unsteadily as it did at times Friday night against Rolling Meadows - and can still win - then the Grenadiers are going to stay in the race for the Mid-Suburban East boys basketball title.

When it counted, the Grens got the baskets they needed, and more than that the defense they had to have, in a 50-49 win at home against a Rolling Meadows team that is clearly playing better than its 5-15 overall and 2-6 division records would suggest.

The final seconds were perhaps a synopsis of both teams' seasons to date.

After missed Grenadier free throws that might have iced it with 8.6 second left, the guy who wound up being in the middle of everything for Elk Grove, Joe Gatziolis, somehow drew a charge from game high-scorer Jared Murphy (27 points), who was driving hard to the basket looking for the winning points, one way or another.

But just when you thought that iced the game for Elk Grove, the Grens were called for traveling when they ran the baseline inbounding the ball with 1.1 seconds left.

For Meadows, one more chance.

"We were looking, obviously, for Jared," said Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Katovich.

Gatziolis, who heeded head coach Anthony Furman' advice ("I know he's aggressive") in drawing the charge moments earlier, this time he stayed in front of Murphy when the 6-foot-4 Mustangs junior set a pick, turned and looked for the ball.

"He (Gatziolis) did a good fronting (Murphy)," Furman said.

The inbounds instead went to Jack Schoessling, the junior point guard who had heated up in the fourth quarter. Rushed, though, with so little time left, his baseline jumper came up a little short after he'd just scored on three drives in a row and four of five shots in the second half.

"He had a nice fourth quarter," Katovich said of Schoessling.

Elk Grove had big but not necessarily so nice win.

"It's a really big win if we want to stay in the conference race," Gatziolis said.

He got help. Joe Lopez came off the bench, hit a 3 and played great defense when Elk Grove needed it in the second quarter after falling behind early. And Fulton Wingba showed his uncanny range with four 3-pointers, 15 points all told, and helped the Grens out-rebound the Mustangs 14-9 in the second half.

Furman was just glad to escape with the win. "We found ourselves up 5 (48-43) and got a little lackadaisical," he noted. "We found a way."

"We've got to execute, catch our passes, make our free throws," Gatziolis said.

And find a way to win.