Glenbard East beats Elk Grove in a thriller

Plain and simple, the Glenbard East boys basketball team survived Tuesday night.

After an 0-for-3 showing in the District 87 Thanksgiving tournament last week, the Rams didn't want to fall further in the hole against Elk Grove in their first home game of the young season.

They managed to defeat the Grenadiers 68-66 but had to stave off fourth-quarter runs of 9-2, 8-2 and 6-2, while simultaneously making 9 of 10 free throws in the final three minutes.

Whew.

"It was a thriller, hey?" Glenbard East coach Scott Miller said postgame. "I told them, I thought our free-throw shooting was a factor. We made our free throws down the stretch, which can solve a lot of problems. I thought we were able to go to the line when the opportunity came and hit some big free throws."

Senior Jeremy Johnson and juniors Deon Cook and Daron Hall each were perfect on their two attempts from the line in the final 33.1 seconds. Good thing, too, because those efforts were sandwiched by 3-pointers from Elk Grove's Jordan Miller and Ryley Rathman.

In fact, after Hall's freebies with 3.6 seconds left, Elk Grove (2-3) pushed the ball up the court and got it in the hands of Mark Matos, who was fouled attempting a 3 with 0.2 seconds to go. He made his first free throw but missed the second and was unable to parlay the third into a rebound and layup by senior center Ryne Singsank as time ran out.

It was a harrowing early-season situation for Johnson and his teammates, but one he enjoyed.

"I was trying to tell the guys whenever they hit a 3, I was just telling them, calm down, we're all right," said Johnson, who was one of four Rams in double figures in scoring Tuesday with 14. "We worked too hard for this. Be smart, you know?"

But those free throws were crucial, Cook said, and not just from the victory standpoint.

"Throughout practice, coach kept emphasizing, Free throws win games," said Cook, who led the Rams (1-3) with 15 points and had a personal 7-0 run early in the fourth quarter. "We have to run suicides if we're missing free throws, so it really came big at the end."

While the finish was thrilling, it looked for a long time like Glenbard East would run away with this one. Second-quarter runs of 10-0 and 7-0 put the Rams up 31-20 at the half, and they ballooned that lead to 39-22 early in the third.

Of course, that was before the Grens outscored the Rams 29-21 in the fourth quarter.

"We showed really good fight," Elk Grove first-year coach Nick Oraham said. "That's a position we haven't been in this year. It's a good learning experience for the guys."

Singsank was rock-solid, recording a double-double of 17 points and 13 rebounds. Not bad for a guy who didn't play a year ago.

"He's our rock," Oraham said of Singsank. "He's a really good player, and doesn't really show any ill effects from not playing last year. He sees the floor really well, he's got really good feet down low."

Added Singsank: "In the fourth quarter we were playing with energy, we were playing hard, we were running everything we were supposed to, and we were running it right."