Palatine puts it all on the (foul) line
Who says you need to make field goals in the fourth quarter to win a basketball game?
Palatine didn't on Friday night in its Mid-Suburban West road game against Hoffman Estates and the Pirates prevailed 56-44 in boys basketball action.
Now, maybe you don't need field goals, but you definitely need points in the fourth quarter to win. Palatine was able to score by making 15 of 20 free throws in the final eight minutes.
"If we're in the bonus and we've got the lead, however we're going to get our points, we've just got the take them," said Pirates coach Eric Millstone. "The kids did a nice job of blocking things out and knocking their free throws down. In a close game, that's what you got to do."
But the game wasn't so close early in the fourth quarter, when the Pirates led by 20 points.
"We got out to a good lead in the third quarter by doing the things we've been working on," Millstone said. "I'd just like to see us close out the game a little bit smarter."
For the game, the Pirates sank 26 of their 32 free-throw attempts, while Hoffman (4-16, 0-8) made just 3 of 12.
"Throughout the game our free-throw percentage was pretty low," said Hawks coach Bill Wandro. "We outscored them from the field, and they outscored us from the free-throw line by a significant number, enough that would have made a difference in the game."
The Pirates (8-13, 3-5) received a big boost from senior guard Egan Malley, who came off the bench to lead them in scoring with 16 points 11 in the first half.
"It was nothing really special," Malley said. "We've been working on a new offense that has us moving and screening a lot. That gets us a lot of open shots with good ball movement."
Pirates senior guard Peter Bony had 13 points, junior guard Austin Marrison added 7 and sophomore forward Josh Baldus had 6 points and 9 rebounds.
Hawks junior guard Austin Terry scored a game-high 19 points while grabbing 6 rebounds. Junior guard Alex Bonds came off the bench to score 9 points and snare 7 rebounds.