Perkins' heroics lift Waubonsie over Elgin
It had not been a memorable Upstate Eight Conference game for Waubonsie Valley's Tyler Perkins, but the final seconds of the Warriors' 47-45 victory at Elgin changed all that Friday night.
Elgin (4-10, 0-4) trailed 36-29 heading to the final quarter, but the Maroons rallied behind sophomore Dennis Moore's 9 fourth-quarter points, which he capped with a drive through the three defenders in the lane for a basket off the glass with 36 seconds left to play. Moore's heroics gave Elgin its first lead since the second quarter, 45-44.
Waubonsie Valley (5-10, 2-2) chewed clock until 12 seconds remained and passed the ball to Perkins. The 5-foot-11 senior drove the lane but missed a contested layup attempt with 7 seconds left, dropping him to 2 of 8 from the field on the night.
However, the rebound was knocked to the corner and eventually tied up for a jump ball. The possession arrow favored the Warriors with only 3.6 seconds left on the clock. During a timeout Waubonsie Valley coach Steve Weemer didn't waver as to who would take the final shot he was drawing up.
"I told our guys in the (postgame) locker room, 'You've got to run a play for your best player,' and he's our best player," Weemer said of Perkins. "He's our most consistent player, our best player. I have confidence in Tyler.
"He was off tonight and his shots weren't falling and he got in foul trouble, but I still am a believer that we're going to our best player at the end of the game. Even if he was 0 for 9, I was going to go to him."
That confidence paid off. Perkins set a screen initially, faked away from the play, then came off two screens to accept the entry pass from Alex Edmondson along the right sideline. Determined to score, he quickly dribbled toward the basket, splitting two Elgin defenders and shooting over a third from close range to score off glass and draw the foul to boot with 1.2 seconds left in the game.
"I had just missed a layup the play before, so I pretty much had it in my mind that I was going to finish no matter what was there," Perkins said. "I really wanted to shoot it because my shot hadn't been falling the whole game and I had kind of a bad game, so I had to make up for it at the end."
Perkins sank the ensuing free throw to finish with 7 points. Elgin's long entry pass was intercepted past midcourt to end a game the Maroons felt they let slip away.
"We worked hard but we broke down at the end," said Moore, who scored 12 points. "We rotated defensively the whole game, but one guy got open on that last play and that really hurt us. I'd rather get blown out than lose by 1 or 2 points like that."
Elgin coach Mike Sitter appreciated the fact that his Maroons rallied to take the lead late for the second game in a row, but he wasn't happy with the defensive execution on the game's decisive play.
"It would have been nice to play defense for 3.6 more seconds and we would have had it." Sitter said. "But we didn't execute. They deserve to win because they executed late.
"We don't normally switch screens on that out of bounds (play), but in the timeout we talked about switching screens and we were just one switch short. We left one guy open and didn't communicate well."
Waubonsie Valley dominated the boards. The Warriors outrebounded the Maroons 44-27, led by Josh Lynn (11), Tyler Edmondson (10) and Mark Szott (9). Junior Jakobi Johnson led Waubonsie with 13 points and Lynn added 9 points, including 6 points in the fourth quarter.
Jordan Dean led the Maroons with 15 points. The junior sank five 3-pointers in 11 attempts.