St. Charles E. tops W. Chicago in OT
In a fitting end to the thrill ride that was St. Charles East’s stay at the 10th annual Glenbard West Holiday Classic, the Saints extended the fifth-place game against West Chicago into overtime.
Unlike the Saints’ prior three contests in Glen Ellyn, Friday’s contest did not end on a last-second shot. Instead Saints guard Dom Adduci’s three-point play 13 seconds into overtime set the tone for an 11-2 overtime run to beat the Wildcats 73-64.
“The play was designed, so I give coach (Patrick Woods) a lot of the credit for that because it really freed me up so I could go to work in my space,” said Adduci, who owned the paint on similar drives to the basket for 17 of his 20 points after halftime.
His drive with 1:26 left in regulation gave the Saints a 62-61 lead, evened up at 1:01 on a free throw by West Chicago’s Jimmy Rizzo to force overtime.
After two 1-point wins and a 3-point loss, Woods finally had some breathing room.
“I told them I’m not going to make it through the season like this because man, it’s just painful,” said Woods, who praised hustle plays by Adduci and Luke Ludke that helped St. Charles East (8-4) rally from a 51-43 hole after three quarters.
“The good thing is, as I told them, to be 3-1 in this tournament and in my opinion we played poorly for a majority of the time, that’s a sign of a good team,” Woods said.
A lay-in by Kendall Stephens off his own steal and then 2 Charlie Fisher free throws gained separation over West Chicago (3-8), held scoreless until the last 1:45 of the extra session.
Despite owning the edge in rebounding and Justin Mundt’s game-high 25 points — one more than fellow all-tourney selection Stephens — West Chicago was unable to corral Adduci on the dribble and missed a maddening number of close-in shots.
“I’m proud of the effort that we gave, we just had some breakdowns at the end where we didn’t have some positive things happen, and when you play against kids like Stephens and Adduci if you make any mistakes they’re going to capitalize on it,” said Wildcats coach Kevin Baldus.
Johnny Hondlik added 10 points and Fisher 7 for St. Charles East; West Chicago got 8 apiece by John Konchar, Dylan Hedmark and Josh Gimre, who likewise felt frustrated.
“We’ve beaten some teams throughout the year that we know we can beat,” Gimre said. “We’ve got to get one that we need to beat.”