Brown’s clutch 3 lifts Elgin to 20th win
The Elgin High boys basketball team would have been just fine without so much drama at Chesbrough Field House Wednesday night.
But drama there was, created by a combination of Elgin’s lackluster play in the first half and an energized Grayslake Central team looking to notch a big upset on the road.
And right in the middle of it was Elgin junior Kory Brown, who despite vomiting on the bench late in the first half, showed nerves of steel by drilling the game-winning 3-pointer with 12 seconds left in regulation as the Maroons made an improbable comeback for a 67-64 nonconference win.
“I was in the game and I had to give it as much as I could,” said Brown, who described the Diet Sprite he drank to settle his stomach as “nasty”.
The final 3 points of Brown’s career-high 30-point game came from the left side of the arc on a kick out from junior Arie Williams and gave the Maroons (20-5) just their third lead of a game Grayslake Central (15-11) appeared to have control of. The shot gave Elgin a 65-64 lead and after a scrum for a loose ball on the Rams’ ensuing possession, Elgin’s Dennis Moore drove the length of the floor for the final layup.
“Arie gave me a nice pass and I just stepped up and into my shot,” said Brown, who also had 9 rebounds, 5 blocked shots and 4 steals.
Maroons coach Mike Sitter was just looking for the tie.
“I just got done telling (Brown) to go to the rim. I didn’t think his legs were there,” said Sitter, whose team won the program’s 20th game for the second time in his tenure (22-9 in the supersectional season of 2007-08) and the second time since 2000-01.
Williams, who helped fuel the Maroons’ comeback, said the pass was all about what the Maroons are all about — team.
“We’re a very unselfish team,” said Williams, who scored 10 of his 12 points including two 3-pointers, in the second half. “I can control the tempo and I just saw him and knew Kory was going to hit that shot.”
It was a miserable start for the Maroons as Grayslake Central bolted out of the locker room to a 9-0 lead in Elgin’s Senior Night. The Rams extended their advantage to 41-28 by halftime and still had a 47-32 lead after a Kyle Shepard basket with 3:40 left in the third quarter when the wheels fell off.
Williams scored for Elgin with 3:22 left, a basket that would ignite an 18-2 Elgin run that wouldn’t end until the Maroons had grabbed a 50-49 lead after a free throw by Devin Gilliam with 6:48 to play.
The Rams didn’t fold yet, though, and held 5-point leads twice down the stretch, the last at 62-57 after 2 free throws by Jordan Taylor with 1:09 left.
But Williams hit a 3 with 55 seconds to go to make it 62-60, and Brown came up with a steal at midcourt and a layup to tie it at 62 with 36 seconds left. Rams’ senior Tim Abbott hit a big bucket inside with 25 seconds to to to give the Rams the lead again, but Brown’s game-winner came 13 seconds later and after Moore’s insurance layup at the buzzer, the Elgin student section went into an on-floor frenzy they hope they can repeat at Larkin next week with a regional championship. Elgin closes out the regular season at Streamwood Friday night and a Maroons’ win will give them the Upstate Eight River title outright.
Grayslake Central coach Brian Moe wouldn’t mind his team getting a little playoff fever in it either.
“The reason we signed a game with Elgin was to play a regional-sectional type game in a great atmosphere and we did that,” said Moe, whose athletic director, Tom Kim, is the former football coach at Elgin.
“Our kids played a great game and they played hard. For the most part I thought we outplayed them on their floor. But their kids fought back and made a play and we didn’t.”
Junior Casey Boyle led the Rams with 19 points and Taylor added 14.