Glenbrook South's big shot staggers Hoffman

Hoffman Estates was not going to be beaten by 6-foot-9 Notre Dame signee Jack Cooley in Friday night's semifinals of the 34th annual Elgin Holiday boys basketball tournament.

So, Glenbrook South had to go to another plan with time running out in overtime at Chesbrough Fieldhouse. That turned out to be Ryan Hopkins tossing up a fallaway 15-footer with a defender in his face with two seconds to play.

Hopkins' shot hit nothing but net and sent the Titans (8-4) into tonight's title game and Hoffman (10-1) to a stunning 50-48 loss.

"They hit some pretty tough shots at the end," said Hoffman senior guard Luke Mead, who scored a game-high 18 points. "But it shouldn't have even come to that."

Hopkins also hit a 3 with 12 seconds left in regulation to help force overtime. Cooley had 17 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocked shots as the Titans will play in today's 8 p.m. title game against Neuqua Valley (11-1), an 84-49 winner over Fremd.

Cooley also deflected an inbound pass to run out the final two seconds and put Hoffman in the 6:30 p.m. third-place game with Mid-Suburban West rival Fremd (3-8) in the second of at least three meetings this season.

"Nobody is happy coming out on this side of it," said Hoffman coach Bill Wandro. "But if we don't learn from it this time of year and the little things we did wrong, we'll be doomed to repeat our mistakes."

Those didn't include the defense Hoffman played on Hopkins (10 points) on his final shot.

"We were looking to get it inside but they were double-teaming Jack," Hopkins said. "I thought there was about two seconds left and I just threw it up and it went in.

"It felt good and I could pretty much tell it would go in."

Hoffman's 6-2 Tom Dombrowski and 6-7 Lance Vesper (6 rebounds) made Cooley work hard inside.

Hoffman also had a 23-20 rebound advantage but 1 of Glenbrook South's 6 offensive rebounds after halftime resulted in Chris Bauer's basket to tie it at 48-48 with 1:39 to play.

"The No. 1 problem we had, especially down the stretch, was rebounding," Wandro said. "We had so many opportunities to close the door on them."

A tough 1-on-1 drive by Mead and 2 free throws by Kemill Long put Hoffman up 41-37 with 22.7 seconds left in regulation. Hopkins answered with a 3 and Kevin Tiongson, who hit two big 3s late in the third quarter, missed a 1-and-1 with 11.8 seconds left.

Raul Hudema split a pair of free throws to tie it with seven seconds left and Mead's 30-footer at the buzzer was off line.

Hoffman took its last lead at 48-46 with 2:07 left when Mead inbounded to a cutting Dombrowski for a layup. Bauer drew a charge at 1:15 to set up Hopkins' game-winner.

"I think we're going to learn from it," said Mead, who hit four 3-pointers.