Warriors fall in overtime

Driscoll, Timothy Christian and the host Lions all won at Lisle's Playing for Pride Shootout.

The best game of the whole nine-game shindig, however, was one a local team lost.

Tim Rusthoven's shootout-record 37 points was not enough for Wheaton Academy, which missed two free throws with one second left in regulation, leading to Hope's 70-68 overtime victory.

Chicago Hope (3-1) is a good basketball team and unfortunately not a fictional hospital, for Wheaton Academy could have used a shot doctor after making 3 of 14 fourth-quarter free throws, 16 of 30 overall.

"We played pretty well, our free throws at the end is what got us," said the 6-foot-7 center Rusthoven, who grabbed 11 rebounds and was nearly matched by Hope guard Derrick Hill Jr., the game's MVP with 31 points.

"We had I don't know how many chances to win it, but we just let it go away because we kept missing," said Rusthoven, followed by forward Anthony Ritchie's 14 points.

It was tight throughout, Wheaton Academy's 34-28 halftime lead matched by two other 6-point leads the Warriors briefly held in the third quarter.

Wheaton Academy (6-2) led 54-51 with 2:22 left on Ritchie's lay-in from an Eric Albaugh pass, but Hill's fadeaway jumper with 1:17 left tied at it 56-56.

Neither team scored the rest of the fourth quarter, but after Rusthoven's try for a game-winning shot missed, a loose-ball foul on Hope put the Warriors on the foul line for 2 free throws with one second on the clock.

"I told my kids, expect a miracle," Hope coach Gary Tate said. "And a miracle happened tonight."

In overtime the Mighty Eagles sped to a 66-59 lead only to see Wheaton Academy score 7 straight points.

Hope sophomore Avery Busch's baseline jumper gave Hope a 68-66 lead with 24 seconds left in overtime. Rusthoven answered with 2 free throws with 10 seconds left.

The Mighty Eagles quickly got the ball downcourt, passed out of a trap, and the last player Tate brought off the bench - sophomore Jessie Covington - passed across the lane for Busch's game-winning basket.

Warriors coach Paul Ferguson lamented the three-man trap that allowed a two-on-one break for the winning basket but said free-throw shooting was the killer.

"It's been a big emphasis for us this year, and we just did not shoot them well tonight at all," he said. "It cost us the game."