Huntley tops Dundee-Crown in OT
Huntley sophomore Bryce Only possesses a solid offensive game, but leading scorer is not the role the second-year starter is asked to fill at this point in his high school career.
“He's our dirty-work guy,” Huntley senior Tyler Brunschon said. “He's like our Dennis Rodman from the Bulls except he has a good personality and he's good to be around.”
Like Rodman, Only, a talented athlete, has a knack for situating himself in the right place at the right time. Take, for example, Saturday night, when he was in the right spot for the Red Raiders in overtime of their 51-47 victory over Dundee-Crown in the championship game of the Sycamore Strombom Tournament.
With the game tied at 45 in overtime, Only, playing with 4 fouls, fought for the offensive rebound of a missed 3-pointer. Hearing Brunschon calling for the ball on the perimeter, Only passed it to the arc where Brunschon drained the 3-pointer that put Huntley ahead for good with 1:36 left in the extra session.
Only subsequently rebounded a Dundee-Crown miss at the other end and fed the ball to Brunschon, who was fouled and split 2 free throws to put Huntley up 4 points with 1:28 left.
“We just didn't get the big rebound tonight,” said Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber, whose team won the rebounding battle 24-20. “Huntley got the big rebound and that was probably the difference in the ballgame.”
The title at the Leland G. Strombom Tournament is the second straight for Huntley (3-0), which has reached the championship game three straight years.
Only finished with 2 points and 6 rebounds, yet he was named to the all-tournament team alongside Brunschon (game-high 17 points) and junior guard Troy Miller (9 points).
“That's why he makes all-tournament teams when he averages 2 points a game,”Manning said of Only's willingness to do the dirty work. “He gets 9 deflections, 5 steals, 8 rebounds and he's only 6 feet tall ... He's one of those guys that what he does you can't quantify with stats. He's extremely important to our team.”
Huntley jumped to an 11-0 lead after four minutes of play and led by as much as 12 in the first half before settling for a 21-17 cushion at intermission.
A 3-pointer from Miller and a baseline jumper from Jake Brock upped Huntley's lead to 11 early in the third quarter, but the Chargers came storming back early in the fourth period despite center Jamel Kimbrough's limited availability due to foul trouble.
A 3-pointer by Will Stupar, a long bank shot by Brandon Rodriguez and a spin move for a basket by Ryan Smith (team-high 12 points) drew the Chargers within a point.
After Dundee-Crown (2-1) tied the game at 42-42 on Bruce Dantzler's drive with 2:32 left,
the lead traded hands twice down the stretch as Huntley's Justin Frederick scored on a turnaround jumper with 2:17 remaining and D-C's Dylan Kissack swished a 3-pointer with 1:49 left.
Brunschon split a pair from the line with 1:07 left to tie the game at 45-45. Dundee-Crown held the ball for the final minute, but Will Cronin's potential game-winner was blocked by Brunschon and Only snagged the rebound to force overtime.
“It usually comes down to one or two possessions,” Huber said. “Unfortunately for us, they executed on their possessions and we weren't able to do that.”
However, Huber wasn't displeased with his team's showing at Sycamore overall.
“I thought the best game we played was tonight out of the three games,” he said. “Coming in this season we have some new faces and some faces back. We have a lot of question marks. We got a lot of answers and found out a lot of things about our team.”
Smith and Kimbrough were named to the all-tournament team for Dundee-Crown.