Aurora Christian tips ACC in OT
About one play after another away from losing Saturday night’s Suburban Christian Conference battle at Aurora Central, Aurora Christian instead made play after play to pull out a thrilling 61-58 overtime victory.
After a tight first half that ended in a 24-24 tie in front of a packed, standing room only crowd, the drama kicked into another gear in the second half.
The first of the make-or-break plays for the Eagles came from Jake Hanson. Robert DeMyers’ alley-oop jam ignited a 6-point in 15-second Charger burst in the closing moments of the third quarter to turn a 38-37 deficit into a 43-38 Chargers lead after Anthony Andujar followed the slam with back-to-back layups off steals.
Aurora Central took its largest lead of the night at 48-42 on a pair of DeMyers free throws before Hanson’s timely deep 3 brought the Eagles back within a possession.
Ryan Suttle added another big shot moments later with a pull-up jumper, but when Aurora Central’s Matt Czerak knocked down a jumper of his own the Chargers were back up 54-51 with 1:35 left.
Ryan McQuade’s 3 on a kick-out from C.J. Schutt evened the score at 54 with 1:10 remaining. Both teams had the ball twice in those final 70 seconds with a chance to win.
The Chargers turned it over on both of their possessions, the second with 4.7 seconds to go. The Eagles advanced the ball to half-court and called time with 1.4 seconds left.
Inbounding from half court Suttle found a cutting Cory Windle all alone under the basket but Windle missed from point-blank range to send the game to overtime.
“I just shot it too quick and was a little hasty with it,” Windle said. “I could have come down with it and gone back up but I just shot it right away. I put my head down for a second and just had to forget about it and get back in and play some defense.”
Andujar’s 2 free throws gave the Chargers the early lead in OT until Hanson’s 3 with 2:24 left made it 57-56 Eagles, the last of 8 lead changes.
Both teams came up empty on two possessions before Windle stepped in the passing lane for a steal and two free throws for a 59-56 lead.
“He’s so good at anticipating and seeing what happens before it happens,” Eagles coach Steve Hanson said. “He didn’t get down on himself. He’s been playing really well.”
Paul Kaminski’s basket brought the Chargers within 59-58. Jake Hanson was fouled in a nasty collision with Joey McEachern when the players bumped heads and both bled heavily.
Coach Hanson subbed Hadyn McNelis to take the 1-and-1 free throw in place of Jake Hanson. McNelis calmly swished both for a 3-point lead, and the Chargers misfired on three potential game-tying 3s in the final 26.7 seconds.
“Haydn is the best shooter on anybody’s team anywhere,” Steve Hanson said. “He can flat out shoot.”
The 3s from Jake Hanson and McQuade, Suttle and Schutt’s solid all-around games, the McNelis free throws and Windle’s defense all left their coach proud of the comeback.
“We just hung in there and kept playing,” coach Steve Hanson said. “There are so many guys who did what we asked them.”
While Aurora Christian (17-5, 5-3) celebrated a second win over Aurora Central (7-13, 2-5) this season, the Chargers lamented 17 turnovers and losing the fourth straight game they led in the fourth quarter.
“We should have closed out the game,” Chargers coach Nate Drye said. “We turn the ball over at key times and we don’t knock down big shots and you can’t win like that.
“We turned it over constantly with the game on the line. I’d like for us to stop and we don’t. We’re not making the plays we need to win games and that’s why we are losing.”
DeMyers played what Drye called his best game since returning from his leg injury with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Andujar added 13 while Suttle (17 points), Schutt (16) and Hanson (13) all hit double figures for the Eagles.