Granger's 3 at buzzer wins it for Maroons
The Cary-Grove and Elgin boys basketball teams traded leads 14 times at Chesbrough Field House Tuesday night, most dramatically when Elgin guard Jeremy Granger hit a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.
After Cary-Grove took a 61-59 lead with 3.2 seconds remaining on 2 Pete Pellizari free throws, Elgin forward Kenny Williams triggered the ball in to D'Angelo Stewart with a baseball pass to midcourt.
The play, called "home run," calls for Elgin guards Granger and Armani Williams to run to either corner of the court and wait for the pass from Stewart.
Stewart ran from under his own basket to catch the ball at midcourt and heard Granger calling for it -- "I just yelled D's name louder than Armani and he threw it to me," joked Granger.
Granger swished the open 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift Elgin to the 62-61 nonconference victory, its fourth straight.
"Well, you obviously have to pay a little attention to (Armani) Williams, and we were matched up in a 2-1-2," Cary-Grove coach Ralph Schuetzle said of the final play. "A 2-1-2 should not let the ball be passed down the sidelines. I don't know why it did get passed down the sidelines or where our guys were."
Cary-Grove guard Paul Tometich, who scored a team-high 20 points, insisted on being held accountable for the loss, which was Cary-Grove's fifth in six games dating back to the semifinals of the holiday tournament at Jacobs.
"I put it all on me because (Granger) was my guy and he was hot," Tometich said. "If I'd guarded him, he wouldn't have made it. I thought my guy went to the opposite side of the floor. I should have been looking for him more."
Cary-Grove (9-8) took its largest lead of the second half at 54-48 when Paul Tometich whipped a pass down the baseline to Alex Jordan, who calmly sank a 3-pointer with 3:55 left in the game.
But Elgin (10-7) answered with a 9-2 run, capped by Stewart's putback of a missed free throw with 46 seconds left.
Senior Dan Bartz tied the game for the Trojans at 59-59 with his clutch 3-pointer from the corner with 26 seconds left.
After a timeout Elgin held for the last shot, but three Trojans converged on Elgin's Kenny Williams and swatted the ball loose.
The Maroons responded by immediately fouling Pellizari, who sank both free throws with 3.2 seconds remaining to set the stage for Elgin's home run play, which Elgin coach Mike Sitter said had failed miserably at the end of a 2-point loss to Batavia at the Elgin Holiday Tournament.
"I've been running that play for 10 years and that's the first time we've scored off it," said smiling Elgin coach Mike Sitter. "But you can't rely on that every game."
Armani Williams finished with 15 points for Elgin but was held without a field goal in the second half.
Mark Tometich scored 16 points for the Trojans before he fouled out of the game with 1:32 to play in the final period.