Lisle falls in overtime
Two teams expected to be major factors in the Interstate Eight Conference championship chase this season got together Friday night in Lisle as the Lions hosted Wilmington in a game that would help them gauge their early-season progress.
The verdict in Wilmington's 49-46 overtime victory was that when the Wildcats are hitting their shots, they'll be awfully tough to beat, while in order for the Lions to hang with the IEC's big boys, they'll have to pick up the defensive intensity.
"Our lack of consistency in our defensive effort hurt us again," said Lisle coach Mark LaScala. "We need to learn to play four quarters of defense."
The Lions (5-6, 2-2) got off to a good start in search of that goal as they forced the Wildcats (7-2, 3-1) to miss their first 11 shots from the field while Ryan Liss, Chris Wray and Marcus Wilson combined to give Lisle a 14-3 lead after six minutes on the way to a 16-9 edge after one quarter of play.
However, after missing those first 11 shots - six of which were from 3-point range, while the other five were within 3 feet of the basket - the Wildcats made 15 of their next 24 attempts from the field. That helped to catch the Lions and eventually open a 38-34 lead after three quarters. Jake Van Duyne, Andy Crutchfield and Ty Anderson combined to hit 11 of their 14 shots at one point in that stretch.
"In that first quarter we were saying the lid's got to come off," said Wilmington coach Matt Hines. "We're too good of a team, especially offensively, to go that long without scoring, and we also picked it up on the defensive end and held Lisle there for a while until we started hitting shots."
Dallas Schnake and Ryan Liss scored the first two baskets of the fourth quarter to draw Lisle even at 38, and the game would also be tied at 40, 42 and 44 coming down the stretch. Wilmington did have a chance to win in regulation, but Van Duyne's 3-point try kicked off the rim, as did Cort Scheel's follow shot at the buzzer.
The Wildcats scored the first 5 points of the overtime period - and successfully ran 90 seconds off the clock at one point - to remove any suspense. The Lions were hampered in the extra period by a trio of turnovers.
"Our offensive execution in the overtime wasn't very sharp," LaScala said. "When you're a little tentative in your decision-making and not sure where you're going to pass the ball, you'll probably make a bad pass."
Lisle now has a week to iron out the kinks before getting back into action at the Lemont Christmas Tournament on Dec. 26.
"This is two games in a row where we got off to a quick lead and fizzled in the second quarter," LaScala said. "Still, we were one shot away from beating a good team tonight."