Willowbrook closes with flourish in win over Addison Trail

Consistency comes in all shapes and sizes.

For Willowbrook's boys basketball team on Thursday, every quarter offered something different.

The Warriors may not have played to their peak from wire-to-wire, but fourth-quarter domination drove them to a 62-48 West Suburban Gold victory over District 88 rival Addison Trail in Villa Park.

"We started playing as a team," said Warriors senior forward Graham Olatunji, who scored 8 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter. "If we play as a team like that, we can beat anybody. It's a struggle to put it all together, but once we do we can run with it."

Addison Trail (5-10, 0-4) pestered the Warriors (7-10, 2-2) the entire game while dealing with its own consistency issues. With Olatunji on the bench for much of the second quarter, the Blazers used a 13-3 run to rally from an 8-point deficit.

Back-to-back Chris Benjamin baskets in the third quarter gave Addison Trail a 34-31 lead before Willowbrook started its run.

Three-pointers by Eric Miller, who scored a game-high 20 points, and Kevin Aguilera allowed Willowbrook to regain the lead. Scoring the first 15 points of the fourth quarter, the Warriors seized command.

"We haven't put a full game together all year," said Addison Trail coach Brendan Lyons. "It's the story of our season, just no consistency. And it's frustrating for the kids and for me."

Willowbrook's decisive run began late in the third quarter as the Warriors held Addison Trail scoreless for six minutes, 25 seconds. By the time it was over, Willowbrook comfortably led 54-36 after Olatunji's free throw with 3:17 left in the game.

Addison Trail's biggest lead stood at 11-6 midway through the first quarter when Mike Gontarek knocked down a 3-pointer. A 13-2 Willowbrook run, however, reversed the advantage to 23-15 in favor of the Warriors.

Benjamin scored 10 of his 16 points in the first half for the Blazers. Willowbrook sophomore guard C.J. Thornton hit all 7 of his free-throw attempts while scoring 9 points.

"I was real happy with the way we played in the third and fourth quarter," said Warriors coach Tim Lavorato. "I thought we made some great decisions on offense. We made free throws down the stretch, and we got defensive stops and rebounds. Those were things we weren't doing in the first and second quarter. We did a much better job in the second half."