Geneva drops thriller; South Elgin tops Lake Park
First Glenbard South junior Ralondo Shumate gave his boys basketball team a lift. Then the Raiders and their fans returned the favor.
Shumate's 2 free throws with 12.3 seconds to play boosted the Raiders to a thrilling 59-58 Western Sun Conference victory against Geneva on Friday night in Glen Ellyn.
Geneva (4-2, 1-1) had one last shot, but it hit off the rim, the Raiders' Sam Mitchell clutched the rebound at the buzzer, then they celebrated by lifting the 5-foot-5 Shumate to their shoulders at midcourt.
"It feels good," Shumate said. "It feels real good."
It feels especially good to the Raiders (3-2, 1-1), who already are just two wins shy of last year's total.
"It feels great," said second-year Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke. "The kids really over the summer -- and the tail end of last year -- started buying into the program, understanding what we were trying to get done. They kept that going through the summer. The kids have been working hard and playing hard. Every day in practice is a battle, kind of like what you saw out here."
The Raiders got a fast start, jumping out to a 21-9 lead after one quarter on a Shumate 3-pointer at the buzzer.
"We just need to start playing a little bit harder," Geneva coach Tim Pease said. "The first quarter was something that wasn't very pretty to watch. Take that away and we played a decent game on the road over here."
But Pease's teams are built for comebacks, with a frenetic, attacking style of play and a mean trapping defense. They didn't disappoint, cutting the Glenbard South lead to 3 at halftime and tying the game at 34 on a Jeremy D'Amico lay-in midway through the third quarter. They finally took their first lead with 6:43 to go in the fourth quarter on a pair of Max Cary free throws.
"I knew that our kids weren't going to lie down, I knew they were going to come back," Pease said. "We just wanted to start that process a little bit sooner, like when we got off the bus."
The teams fought tooth and nail down the stretch, with Geneva taking its last lead on a pair of D'Amico free throws with 33.0 seconds to play. That set up Shumate's heroics.
"I was pretty nervous because I missed my first five (free throws), they went in and out," Shumate said. "But I had to get focused and knock them down for the team."
It didn't help that he was playing on a wobbly ankle he injured and had to get taped earlier in the game. He was still limping afterward.
"Ralondo went down in the fourth quarter with his ankle, really kind of a gutsy performance there," Hardtke said. "He stepped up down the stretch."
South Elgin 46, Lake Park 38:ŒThis was a victory that didn't feel like one.
The South Elgin boys basketball team Friday night shot only 40 percent from the free-throw line, failing to put away Lake Park, until late in the fourth quarter as the Storm beat the Lancers, 46-38, in South Elgin.
"In my eyes, we don't deserve to win," Storm coach Chaz Taft said. "We can't have too many of these where we miss that many free throws, miss that many box outs and still come away with a victory."
South Elgin (3-2, 1-0 Upstate Eight) was able to overcome its 8-for-20 free-throw shooting by holding the Lancers to 32 percent shooting and forcing 21 turnovers.
The Storm led 16-13 at halftime despite missing 7 of 8 free throws. But Lake Park (2-3, 0-1) wasn't much better as the Lancers turned the ball over 12 times and shot 4-for-14 in the first half.
Lake Park didn't hit its first field goal until there was 1 minute remaining in the first quarter when Trent Patterson hit a free-throw line jumper to tie the game at 6-6.
"They took us out of our offense," Lancers coach Cray Allen said. "We've got to learn to get open."
The Lancers came out of halftime with a designed play for Danny Baylis, who hit a 3-pointer from the right corner to tie the game at 16-16. Lake Park eventually took its first lead since 2-0 later in the third quarter on a Michael Pavone 3-point play gave the Lancers a 25-24 lead with 1:48 left.
With Lake Park up 27-24, South Elgin senior Adam Hodge hit a 3-pointer with 50 seconds remaining in the third as the game was tied 27-27 heading into the fourth.
The Storm scored the first 5 points of the fourth as Hodge and Jordan Dobler hit jumpers and Daniel Lopez made 1 of 2 free throws. The lead never went below three the rest of the way, but the Storm were never comfortable as they made only 5 of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter.
"We made it closer than it should have been with all the free throws we missed," said Hodge, who led the Storm with 14 points and 8 rebounds. "We could have done the little things better. That kept them in the game I think."
The Storm's Alex Sanchez, who frustrated Lake Park point guards all night, finished with 10 points, 8 in the fourth quarter, and 4 steals. Josh Glenn also added 10 points.
Pavone scored a game-high 14 for Lake Park. Baylis finished with 13 points, 9 coming in the second half.
-- Brian Schaumburg