Lee, IC Catholic defeat Lisle
Chauncey Lee remained unfrozen when Lisle coach Mark LaScala took a timeout between free-throw attempts.
Lee's practice plan incorporates this sort of thing.
"During practice my (assistant) coach, Coach (Demetrius) Carr, he will bounce pass me the ball and take it right back and tell me to step back and come back to the ball," Lee said.
The unfazed IC Catholic Prep junior point guard delivered the go-ahead free throw with 1:03 left to play and hit another with 24 seconds remaining to cinch host IC Catholic's 51-49 nonconference victory Monday in Elmhurst. Lee made 4 of 6 foul shots in the last 1:52.
"I already knew that situation. It didn't bother me." said Lee, whose 16 points joined Dom Gaudio with 18 and Zach Jordan with 11 in double figures for the Knights (7-2).
Lisle (6-4) led 49-45 with 2:45 to play on Joe LaScala's running one-hander and had a couple late chances to score, the last with 5.3 seconds to play. From Lisle's baseline Ray Bandzoumouna inbounded the ball to Demetrius King Jr. near the 3-point arc. King used a solid Josh Farrell screen to dribble left then passed in to the rolling Farrell, whose closely defended attempt glanced off.
"We drew it up and Dee, he's usually wanting to take a shot, but he passed it up for the team so that we could get the good look. We got it, but unfortunately it just didn't go down," said Bandzoumouna, a senior wing who scored a team-high 15 points with 9 rebounds. King scored 12 points, Joe LaScala 9.
Lisle outrebounded the Knights 40-19 for the game, one reason the Lions posted a 25-18 halftime lead. The 6-foot-4 Farrell stormed the glass in the second quarter, his 4 points, 5 rebounds and a block supporting 3s from Bandzoumouna, LaScala and Sean Etzkorn.
When IC Catholic coach T.J. Tyrrell kept his team in the locker room the entire halftime, Lisle figured something was up.
"I knew when he didn't come out at halftime and the clock was just about running out that he was lighting a fire under them. We knew that they'd come out with renewed energy. We had trouble matching that," said Mark LaScala, Joe's father as well as Lisle's coach.
"He just told us, it's our home territory, so defend home territory," Lee said.
Knights senior Dom Gaudio heeded the call. He swished three 3s and scored 13 of his 18 points in a 22-point third quarter that gave ICCP a 40-39 lead entering the fourth.
The Knights committed only 4 turnovers. Now, to put it all together.
"A Monday night game makes it a little tougher and we battled on Saturday versus Fenwick," Tyrrell said. "I don't know if that had to do with some of the lag, but we've got to come out much better Friday versus Riverside-Brookfield, for sure."