Immaculate Conception sinks St. Francis in OT
It looked bad for Immaculate Conception's Antonio Taylor when a foul knocked him to the floor and he stayed down.
The linebacker-tough senior drew relieved laughs from Knights fans as he rolled over to request a cup of water while a trainer massaged a cramp out of his calf.
Rehydrated, Taylor got up and flexed the leg. Then he sank the St. Francis Spartans.
Taylor's 2 free throws with seven seconds left in overtime Friday gave the Knights a 49-48 win at St. Francis' Spyglass Athletic Center in Wheaton. IC's Matt McMahon intercepted a pass underneath the Spartans' basket to end the Suburban Catholic Conference game.
Fine retribution for Taylor, who silenced several Spartans fans who moved 90 feet downcourt to hoot at him.
"It's all in good fun," said Taylor, who had missed 2 free throws with 1:56 left in overtime and saw St. Francis (14-8, 7-5) make up a 45-40 deficit with 38 seconds left in regulation on a Clint Pierce 3 and Dave Palash's third-chance putback after his own steal.
"I was a little worried, but I had confidence in my team," said Taylor, who scored a game-high 17 points with 5 steals. "That's why we came through, we never gave up. We knew we should have won it from the beginning, and our goal was to get two wins from this team."
IC (16-9, 7-6) beat St. Francis twice in a season for the first time in Knights coach Darren Howard's nine-year tenure, though Howard wasn't ecstatic with "mental mistakes" that allowed the Spartans back in.
"I'm happy with the way it ended, obviously," Howard said. "I'm happy beating Francis for the second time this year. I'm happy ending our (three-game) losing streak. And we've got to get back to work."
St. Francis coach Shawn Healy conceded IC's superiority this Friday, but said "we sure helped out" with 14 turnovers and missed inside shots. IC, which also got 13 points from center Matt Purdom, led 14-10 after a quarter, 33-32 after three quarters.
"They make it an ugly game at the pace that they want," said Healy, who got 16 points from Pierce, 11 from Joe Pfeiffer and 10 from Ryan Ferguson. "Their (2-3) zone is tough. But we missed some shots that were very makeable, and I think we turned the ball over not necessarily because of their zone, just because there was lack of concentration."
Pierce had a similar take.
"We figured we'd play as hard as we can these last four minutes to make up for what we haven't played the rest of the game," he said. "So it was very disappointing."