Dramatic finish puts Elk Grove in Jacobs semifinals
All Elk Grove wanted was a chance.
A chance to commit a foul. A chance to stop the clock. A chance at a subsequent game-ending shot to tie or possibly win their final round-robin game Tuesday morning at the Jacobs Holiday Basketball Classic in Algonquin.
All Rockford Jefferson wanted was a chance to score the points that would ice the decision and prospectively give them the group championship and a slot in the pool of first-place group winners competing for the tournament title.
Be careful, Jefferson J-Hawks, what you ask for, as Elk Grove pulled out a 54-53 victory on Kishan Patel's layup with 1.9 seconds left.
Jefferson high-scoring, high-flying junior forward Jared Mayes saw what his team wanted, and went for it. Leading by a point as time wound down following a clutch 3 by Elk Grove's Austin Amann, Mayes, in press-break mode, was staring down a 2-on-1.
Pull it out? Run some clock? Get fouled? Win it the old-fashioned way? Or go for it in a true University of Northern Iowa NCAA Tournament moment?
As the game-high scorer's layin attempt rolled tantalizingly across the rim and off, Elk Grove got its chance with 19.9 seconds left. Now, at the other end, after a wild scramble around the basket during which no fewer than a half dozen players had their hands on or near the ball after Devin Neill's pass got deflected, it spilled off someone's body.
Right to Patel. All by himself. In layup range. Stunned a moment, he converted smoothly otherwise for their second last-second win in the tournament.
Two timeouts and a half-court pass later, Jefferson couldn't get the ball to a double-teamed Mayes (24 points) and subsequently couldn't even get a shot off before the final horn. It propelled Elk Grove to a 3-0 pool record and into Thursday's 7:30 p.m. semifinal against Crystal Lake Central (10-0).
This is the same Elk Grove team that came into the tournament 2-6 and now could leave over .500 with a title trophy in tow.
"We're growing as a team," said coach Anthony Furman, who knew what the difference was Tuesday.
"Defense," he asserted. "That put us in position to win it."
"We always play defense," said Patel, the 5-foot-10 junior guard whose layin became the game's final points and enabled him to draw even with Amann at 13 apiece to lead the Grens. "We pick each other up. We trust each other."
They had to. Jefferson (6-6, 1-2 in pool) seemed in control down the stretch until the wild final 20 seconds. Prior to that, Mayes (20 points) had hit a driving shot and drawn the defense on another drive to enable Jeremi Nelson to be open for a layup on the 6-3 junior's slick feed. He'd already hit a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
It wasn't the only adversity Elk Grove had to overcome. Furman battled flu symptoms that even kept him home the day before, leaving Luke Miller in charge of what would become the win over host Jacobs and virtually in charge Tuesday against the J-Hawks.
The Grenadiers also had to overcome themselves. Their 2-6 record coming in wasn't indicative of their ability, they thought.
"We always thought this is the year, but we got off to a slow start," said Patel. That has all been reversed so far at Jacobs. With timely shooting and scoring from Amann, Zach Solorio and, off the bench, hustlers Jeff Miceli and Anthony Jimenez, who combined for 21 points and a trio of 3-pointers, Elk Grove played nip and tuck with high-powered Jefferson all game.
Then came those 19.9 seconds, Mayes' drive and near miss, Patel's layin and now a trip to the championship semifinals.
Patel was "-in the right place at the right time," said Furman, "and we played well enough to make some plays. We took advantage (of Mayes' miss). Now we've got to keep making plays, and defending."