Fenton delights in regional title
The 35-year drought is over in Bensenville.
Fenton boys basketball clinched its first regional title since 1976 with a 69-55 win over Senn at home Friday.
The Bison (11-19) advanced to the Class 3A Ridgewood sectional and will return to action on Wednesday night against Ridgewood.
A feeling of confused jubilation took over as Fenton coach Dennis Cromer’s team found itself in unfamiliar territory after the final buzzer.
“At first we didn’t even know we were supposed to get a plaque,” Cromer said.
Fenton’s opportunity to cut down the nets was put in serious jeopardy in the fourth quarter. Senn (6-14) cut the Fenton lead down to 7 behind a barrage of long-range shooting from Lamont Dawkins. Dawkins finished the game with six 3-pointers.
Bison fourth-year varsity player Dan Montano quickly stretched Fenton’s lead back to 9 points. After another Dawkins 3, Montano slashed to the basket, drew the foul and knocked down both free throws.
“I saw we were out of order,” Montano said with the trophy in his hand and the net around his neck. “I had to slow down the game at that point because I thought we were out of control.”
A timely 3-pointer by Senn forward Izzy Obaseki brought all the momentum back to the Bulldogs with less than five minutes to play. Senn trailed by just 6 points and forced Fenton into its most crucial possession of the game.
Montano delivered on the possession with a putback basket to calm everything down. Moments later the senior was on the ground forcing a Senn turnover that led to an easy layup by Fenton senior Kyle Moriarty.
Just 15 minutes later Cromer was being doused with water from the cooler that his team managed to dump on him.
“We played with confidence early, and we just kind of hung on,” Cromer said while soaking wet. “We’ve plugged away and plugged away. I had my doubts this day would ever come.”
Montano admitted he didn’t sleep well on Thursday night as he contemplated how painfully close past Fenton teams had come to winning the regional crown.
“I couldn’t be happier for Dan,” Cromer said.
Montano finished with 29 points to lead all scorers.
“This was my dream,” Montano said. “We just have to keep playing our game. If we keep teams under 50 (points), we’ll be in every game.”