Bent on victory, Libertyville tops Warren

Warren bent, and so did a rim.

Eventually, Libertyville got the Blue Devils to break.

All Warren had to do Friday night was run the clock out on a game that was in its control most of the way.

But a rim-wreckin' move by Libertyville forward Billy Meyer was the beginning of the end for the Blue Devils, and the start of one heck of a rally for Libertyville.

The host Wildcats were down by as many as 11 points midway through the third quarter and by 8 points in the fourth quarter. But they clawed their way back into the game and wound up pulling out a 53-50 North Suburban Conference Lake Division victory in front of a rambunctious holiday crowd.

The win moves Libertyville to 5-3 overall and 3-1 in the Lake. Warren falls to 2-5 and 1-2 in the division.

"The comeback was unbelievable," Meyer said. "We were under water there. But once the momentum changed-"

Ah yes, the momentum change.

Meyer had something to do with that. A big something, in fact.

Warren was up 49-41 at the beginning of the fourth quarter. But Libertyville forced a turnover and Meyer wound up with the ball on the break. He went up for a dunk and threw the ball down so hard that the break-away rim never snapped back into place.

It just stuck there, bent downward.

Apparently, a spring broke during Libertyville's practice on Thursday and there was no time to replace it before the game. So that's why the rim stuck.

Well, the Libertyville student section was going wild. A dunk yielding a bent up rim? Now that's something to hoot and holler about.

A fired-up Meyer encouraged the crowd by waving his hands, asking for more. The fans obliged and got even louder as the rim was shoved back into place.

Apparently, all that noise woke up Meyer's teammates.

Libertyville then went on an 8-1 run, thanks in part to a pesky full-court press, to take a 51-50 lead with 43.8 seconds remaining.

The Wildcats then closed out the victory with some Luke Mathewson free throws.

"We started playing as a team, finding guys for shots," said Meyer, who spent the first half in foul trouble but came back strong to score all 11 of his points after the break. "It was special playing out there. It was fun.

"I saw a (rim-bending) dunk like that once last year. It was actually against us. Lenzelle Smith from Zion-Benton did it. I wanted to do that so that we had a memory of us dunkin' and breakin' that rim. That time that they had to take to fix the rim just gave our fans more time to cheer. I felt a huge rise in the gym. It was unbelievable. If anyone wasn't pumped up already, that got them pumped up. It was a huge momentum changer."

The Wildcats kept the momentum in their favor by slapping a full-court press on Warren for the remainder of the quarter and that cause all kinds of problems.

Warren had 15 turnovers in the game but 8 of them came the fourth quarter. The Blue Devils scored only 3 points in the period.

"We played well for 3-plus quarters, but in the last four to five minutes of the game, we just didn't function very well," Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. "The turnovers really hurt us and we didn't score down the stretch. We got tentative. We've been pressed every game we've played this year, and most of the time we've done OK. But tonight we made some critical mistakes and you can't do that."

Guard Craig Burton led Warren with a game-high 14 points but was quick to point out the turnovers he and his teammates made trying to just get the ball out of the backcourt.

"We turned the ball over in the fourth quarter, me included, and you can't do that. We've got to learn how to close," Burton said. "It was like we weren't prepared (for Libertyville's press) and we started going crazy."

Warren also got 12 points from forward Shahron Thomas.

Meanwhile, Libertyville got double-figures from four players. Joining Meyer were two sophomores, Mathewson and guard Ellis Matthews, who had 12 and 10 points respectively. Guard Ryan Barth added another 11 points.

"We really played well defensively in the fourth quarter and locked down," Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. "When we got (Meyer's) dunk, it got the crowd going, but the rim getting stuck also allowed us to set up our (pressure) defense and (Warren) immediately got a 10-second call (turnover). That was a great momentum swing right there.

"We had a game like this against Zion-Benton last week where we were down by 19 points, came back and had a shot to win the game. Now we have a game like this. Our kids are showing a lot of guts and starting to believe that we can be a really good team."