West Aurora avenges loss to Bartlett
After opening its game against Bartlett with seven 3-point attempts missed in succession, West Aurora was showing the rust of not playing in 16 days.
But the Blackhawks' boys basketball team authored final quarter to remember Friday in a critical Upstate Eight Valley game in Aurora.
West Aurora, which suffered a triple-overtime defeat in the teams' league opener, converted its final 11 field-goal attempts to turn a tense contest into a 68-55 victory.
"The game was much closer than the final score indicated," said West Aurora coach Gordie Kerkman, who surpassed Collinsville icon Virgil Fletcher with win No. 793 to become the fourth-winningest coach in state history.
The Blackhawks (10-5, 4-2) were nursing a 37-36 lead on their opening fourth-quarter possession when freshman Camron Donatlan had a 3-point putback off his own miss.
It would prove to be the only misfire in the quarter as West Aurora hit 11 consecutive shots to end the game.
Roland Griffin, the Blackhawks' Illinois State-bound forward, hit three fourth-quarter baseline jumpers and a driving layup to lead the team with 23 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
"I came back with a vengeance," said Griffin, who missed the teams' conference opener. "We had to get the 'W.' Being that we already lost to them once and we already have two losses in the conference, we knew this was a must-win (game), especially on our home court."
"(Griffin and I) had a little talk (on Thursday)," Kerkman said. "I didn't chew him out. He's a guy who can and should be dominating ballgames. I felt he pretty much dominated tonight."
"(Griffin) did what a D-I kid is supposed to do in the fourth quarter," said Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith. "He hit big shot after big shot."
The Blackhawks' Tommy Koth and Marquis Howard had monster second halves as well for West Aurora.
Howard scored all 13 of his points - including 10 in the fourth quarter - after the intermission, and Koth did not score the first of his 15 points until late in the second quarter.
Bartlett (12-4, 5-2) dominated the first 12 minutes of the game behind its terrific tandem of Ryan DiCanio and Tyler Pauletti.
The former, who tied Griffin for game-high-scoring honors with 23 points, had 13 of the Hawks' first 25 points to give Bartlett a 12-point lead midway through the second quarter.
Pauletti would finish with 18 points.
But West Aurora responded with a 19-1 run bridging the end of the second quarter and beginning of the second half.
Griffin hit a long 3-pointer to give West Aurora a 27-26 lead at halftime.
"A lot of the credit goes to Gordie," Wolfsmith said. "He changed up his defense (during the run). We started missing shots that we should have made."
"We had to come out with some hard defense on No. 21 (DiCanio)," Griffin said. "That's how we got the lead."