Boatright sinks West Aurora
Ryan Boatright was not about to go 0-for-4 against West Aurora during his storied career at East Aurora.
In the schools’ 214th boys basketball game before a capacity crowd at East High Saturday night, Boatright was simply electrifying with 41 points to lead the Tomcats past West Aurora 74-66 Saturday night.
“We just knew we had to win,” Boatright said. “We just had to dig deep and refuse to lose. Snoop (Visor) got me going when he hit those (two second-quarter) 3s.”
In the decisive run of the game, Visor hit back-to-back 3-pointers as part of a 26-point East Aurora second-quarter explosion that reversed an early 8-point West Aurora lead after one quarter.
The Blackhawks (13-9) had used second-chance points as a platform to build its 19-11 cushion after one.
“We though that was one area that we might be able to exploit was on offensive boards,” said West coach Gordie Kerkman.
But Boatright, who had a 4-point play in the first quarter, scored in the waning seconds to give the Tomcats (18-5) a 37-31 lead at the break.
The second half appeared to be an East Aurora coronation after Boatright drained a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 48-35.
But the hallowed series would not be complete with West making its own series of runs.
With four players in double figures and two more with 9 points, the balanced attack compensated for the 57 combined points by Boatright and Visor.
The end of the third quarter was as inspiring as it was extraordinary.
Boatright scored with less than four seconds to play on one of his customary drives, only to see Brandon Hayes’ highlight-reel of a response.
The senior West guard took an inbounds pass and launched a 65-foot line drive that had to narrowly miss the Tomcats’ famed hanging scoreboard.
The ball miraculously found nothing but net to slice the Tomcats’ lead to 52-46 after three.
“I got the ball and looked at the clock,” Hayes said. “It felt pretty good when it left my hands. It was just a crazy shot.”
West High would slice the Tomcats’ cushion to five points on three different occasions in the fourth quarter.
But Boatright would always have a response.
The Connecticut-bound star a 3-point play and two other jaw-dropping inside moves to keep the Blackhawks at bay.
“I just looked to score whenever we needed a bucket,” Boatright said.
“We had our opportunities,” said Kerkman. “For some of the kids this is their first East-West game, and it’s hard to communicate. We lost the game up here (pointing to the mental aspects).”
Juwan Starks had 13 points to pace West High; Kyle Pilmer had a productive outing with 12 points and 8 rebounds. Hayes finished with 11 points, and power forward Jonathan Dennison added 10 points.
Tommy Goulding hit three 3-pointers to forge his 9-point night, which Kenny Battle, Jr. duplicated.