Gutierrez helps Round Lake hang on against Antioch
Round Lake's boys basketball team held a 12-point lead late in the third quarter and was hoping that advantage might be enough to get out of Antioch with a victory on Friday night.
Antioch had other ideas, though, and sure made it interesting down the stretch.
Anthony Gutierrez sank a pair of free throws with 0:11 left, and the Sequoits had a last shot hit the front of the rim on their final shot at the buzzer.
Round Lake escaped with a 32-29 victory over Antioch for its first win in the North Suburban Prairie Division.
The first of Gutierrez's 2 free throws almost didn't go in, as it circled the cylinder five times before finally dropping through. The next one was a less dramatic but just as effective swish.
Gutierrez's free throws broke a crippling 1-for-10 fourth quarter team free throw shooting slump and gave the Panthers a memorable win.
"I think I have only see something like that on TV," Gutierrez said. "I was just holding the rope for the team. Making the last 2 (free throws) was really important."
Gutierrez led the Panthers off the bench with a game-high 12 points and 4 rebounds on a night that Juddon Carter was held to 7 points. Carter now stands 110 points away from being the school's all-time leading scorer.
Round Lake improved to 5-9 overall and 1-3 in the Prairie while Antioch dropped to 4-11 and 0-4.
"That's a game where a double-digit lead is like being up by 20 or 25," said Round Lake coach Jimmy Roberts, whose team was up 27-15 with two minutes left in the third quarter. "That's where we struggle, in finishing games. We missed layups, free throws and had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes. We were able to crawl away with this one."
Antioch made a big push in the fourth quarter thanks to the efforts of Anthony Formella, who scored 7 points and made a couple of key steals. William Waschow gave the Sequoits a boost, coming off the bench to score 8 of his team-high 11 points.
Waschow completed a 14-3 run with a short jump shot that cut the Round Lake lead to 30-29 with 25 seconds left.
"I usually try to pick things up at the end," said Waschow, who also had 13 rebounds. "I stepped it up in the fourth along with the rest of the team."
The Sequoits are simply looking to put together a complete game.
"We continue to have a quarter that we don't play," Antioch coach Jim White said. "Once the shots start dropping, then we get going.
"Round Lake let us get right back into it. Defense is letting us stay in games. We just have to get the lid off the hole."