Batavia hangs on for tense victory at Quincy
Boys basketball
Batavia 69, Quincy 67: Batavia watched a potential game-winning 3-pointer from Quincy's Michael Schmitt rim out at the buzzer to earn a heart-pounding victory in Saturday's non-conference road contest.
Batavia senior guard Jesse Coffee connected on six 3-pointers as part of a game-high 24-point effort.
Cole Gardner and Elliott Vaughn did the damage on the inside for the Bulldogs (3-3) with 19 and 18 points respectively, while grabbing 9 rebounds apiece.
Batavia enjoyed a 39-21 rebounding advantage and hit 15 of 19 free throw attempts, including 10 of 11 in the fourth quarter. The Blue Devils (3-2) connected on only 5 of 8 of their free throw attempts.
Trailing 60-58 with two minutes to play, Quincy's Martin Kvitle drilled a 3-pointer from the top for a 61-60 lead.
Batavia regained the lead for good at 64-61 as Mike Rueffer and Gardner each made a pair of free throws.
Aurora Central Catholic 60, Walther Lutheran 57: Senior Ryan Herreld dropped in 26 points as the Chargers (2-4, 1-1) notched a Suburban Christian Gold Conference road win.
Metea Valley 68, Lake Park 63: Metea Valley now understands how Upstate Eight Conference boys basketball operates.
Forcing 26 Lake Park turnovers 18 in the first half the host Mustangs on Saturday led by as many as 18 points before Lake Park cut it to 1.
Metea held on for a 68-63 decision in Aurora, the first of what should be many UEC Valley Division victories for the Mustangs.
"The fourth quarter and the second half of the third quarter is what this conference is going to be about," said Metea Valley coach Bob Vozza, whose squad went 22-3 on the JV level last season. "It's kind of us digging down. We're going to be put in position to make good decisions, and if we do that we'll be successful."
Lake Park (4-2, 0-1), trailed 32-14 midway through the second quarter but rallied within 64-63 with 24 seconds left in the game, capping a 9-1 run on Eric Eichholz's running one-hander.
Seven seconds later Metea's Sean Davis hit a pair of free throws, and Metea Valley (4-1, 1-0) ended the game how it began with Mustangs guard Ryan Solomon stealing a pass. LaShawn Cargo made two free throws with one second left for the final score.
"Last year we played JV teams, it's not as competitive as it is now," said Cargo, who scored a game-high 21 points. "So we had to just learn from this first game to see how it's going to be down the stretch in a game. Next game we'll be ready for that."
College basketball
Aurora University 89, Millikin University 51: Josh Gabbard delivered a solid all-around performance with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocked shots as Aurora University notched a home non-conference victory Saturday afternoon.
Joel Iventosch contributed 10 points and 4 assists for the Spartans (2-4) while Tyrone Carey had 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field. Pete Carlson added 9 points and 3 assists.