Prairie Ridge's depth steps up vs. South Elgin
Prairie Ridge's Drake Tomasiewicz and Ben Gablenz softened the absence of starters Samuel Loeding and John Fuery as the Wolves started the Jacobs' Hinkle Holiday Classic.
Those two made huge contributions in their expanded roles, scoring all but two of the Wolves' fourth-quarter points as they rallied to defeat South Elgin 46-43 in their opening game of tournament on Tuesday at the Eagles' Nest.
Prairie Ridge (6-5) led 44-43 with 42 seconds remaining and Tomasiewicz was fouled with 15 seconds to go for a bonus free-throw attempt. Tomasiewicz made both.
South Elgin (6-7) got Sean Harvey a 3-point look in the final seconds, but he missed and Gablenz tipped the ball to the left corner as time expired.
"I was shaking in there," Wolves coach Ryan Smith said. "I can't imagine how (Tomasiewicz) was feeling. Part of it was I was cold, the gym was freezing. Drake stepped up huge. We're down a couple of guys, Drake can do a lot for us. He came up with some big buckets and hit two huge free throws at the end. He really played well."
Tomasiewicz had eight of his 11 points in the fourth quarter.
"My teammates were keeping me in check (on the free throws), telling me to take a deep breath and use my legs," Tomasiewicz said. "That's what I did. It was a great win. A lot of people stepped up, like myself and Ben."
James Muse led Prairie Ridge with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Cade Collins added nine points and Gablenz scored seven points and had eight rebounds.
Loeding suffered a broken nose in Friday's win against Crystal Lake Central and underwent surgery on it Tuesday. He will miss the tournament. Smith said Fuery, who recently had games of 20 and 19 points, has a stomach bug and could return.
The Wolves will play Hoffman Estates at 3 p.m. Wednesday in a quarterfinal. South Elgin will play Marian Central in the consolation bracket.
" (Loeding and Fuery) are probably our top two scorers on the team," Muse said. "A lot of our 3s are from them. It shows we can mix it up and have other guys step up."
Prairie Ridge played a solid first half and led 25-19, but the Storm picked it up in the third quarter with a 15-6 advantage and pushed the lead to 39-31 early in the fourth quarter.
"We just shot poorly today," South Elgin coach Philip Church said. "We had a lot of open looks by shooters who can hit them. Sometimes you make shots, sometimes you don't. Once we handled their downhill drives and ran our offense in the third quarter we started making plays."
With the Storm leading 39-31, Tomasiewicz sparked the Wolves with a driving layup and a rebound bucket and Gablenz scored on a short jumper.
South Elgin's Elias Williams made a pair of free throws for a 41-37 lead, but Gablenz hit a 3, then got a defensive rebound and fired a pass to Tomasiewicz for a fast-break layup and the lead.
Muse scored on a rebound basket for a 44-41 lead.
"We were playing really good defense and we weren't getting uncomfortable with their pressure and weren't turning it over," Muse said.
Smith was pleased with the way the Wolves came back after the six-point third quarter.
"We did a nice job defending down the stretch," Smith said. "The third quarter got away from us. We did a little better talking through some screens in the fourth. We didn't get beat on all the 50/50 balls. We got out in transition and get a couple layups to get back in it."
Williams led the Storm with 11 points. Shailen Patel added eight points with two 3s. The Storm hit 15 of 15 free throws.
"It's learning to trust your system," Church said. "We can run this the whole game. We started forcing a lot of shots. They converted and we didn't.
"You have to understand time, situation and score and trust what you're doing in practice. We did that in the third quarter and didn't quite do it in the fourth."