West Chicago withstands late charge from Glenbard East
Winless teams often go away and hide once the heavy favorite throws a series of hard punches their way, and host West Chicago threw everything it had at Glenbard East in the third quarter Friday night.
While the Rams eventually came up short 66-61 - leaving Glenbard East still in search of that elusive first boys basketball victory - the visitors showed signs of solid growth and have reason to believe a few victories will come their way soon.
With Tai Bibbs and Jason Gimre combining to go 5 for 5 from beyond the arc in the third quarter, West Chicago built a 53-42 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Then the Wildcats held off a strong rally by the Rams, who closed to within 64-61 and had the ball with a chance to tie in the waning seconds.
"It took a good effort on our part to beat that team," West Chicago coach Bill Recchia said after his team improved to 13-4 on the year and 2-2 in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division. "That's why looking at records is not the way to indicate how good a basketball team is. I told Scott (Miller, Rams coach) after the game I don't know how they haven't won a basketball game. Because they're good."
The Rams connected on 11 3-pointers in the night and picked up a boost from James Peterkin's eligibility return to the team, but in the end the Wildcats' 26-11 third-quarter charge proved to be too much to overcome.
Jimmy FairBairn-Vargas actually opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer that gave the Rams a brief 29-27 lead, but Isaac Nelson tied it up with a layup and then the Wildcats heated up from the outside. First Bibbs hit a pair of long-range shots and then Gimre took over.
Bibbs finished with a game-high 20 points, but it was Gimre who put the finishing touch on a huge third quarter. The junior guard, who had put his team on top 48-38 with his fourth 3 of the night, then nailed a shot from the corner at the buzzer for a 53-42 lead. It was his third 3 of the quarter and sent him on his way to a season-high 18 points.
"We got it up to 12 points and that was a huge boost," Gimre said. "The other team is going to make a run so that gave us a good cushion. The team got me open shots and I just put them down. We were struggling on defense and we knocked down some shots to build everything up."
The Wildcats needed the cushion as Korvante Davis and Peterkin led a strong comeback late. The two combined for 35 points off the bench, and it was a 3 by Peterkin that gave the Rams life down 64-61 with 7.8 seconds left before falling just shy of a win.
"Yeah I'm really proud of our effort. It just comes down to some little things every now and again and we're just not quite over that hump yet," said Miller, whose team is 0-14, 0-4. "The improvements we made now showed. Early in the fourth they were up 10 and that's the point where we've kind of let up, and it gets away from us. Tonight we kept coming and we had some big buckets and some good stops."
Devonte Pascal had 12 points and 7 rebounds for West Chicago, while Alijah Nelson and Anthony Shockey each tallied 9 points for Glenbard East.