Maine West 60, Mather 59

This game was over. Trailing by 12 in the final minute of the third quarter, Maine West's boys basketball season was going to end on a Monday night in Wheeling.

The program's first playoff victory since March 1, 2006, would have to wait.

But then seniors Jimmy Orlowski and Adis Kadiric decided the Warriors' season would see another day. Orlowski (15 points) drilled three of his five 3-pointers and Kadiric tallied 8 of his team-high 20 as Maine West rallied in the final eight minutes to defeat Mather 60-59 in the Class 4A Wheeling regional quarterfinal.

The 16th-seeded Warriors (8-20) don't have much time to celebrate -- they face No. 2 seed New Trier at 7:30 p.m. today in a rematch of a game Maine West lost 64-46 last Tuesday.

"Obviously we want to go out with our seniors playing vital minutes, and Adis and Jimmy never got flustered and stuck to the game plan," said Maine West coach Erik McNeill.

Did they ever. With Maine West down by 10 to open the fourth, the Kadiric-Orlowski combo accounted for all the Warriors' scoring as they went on a 15-2 run in the opening 4:42 of the quarter.

Kadiric's layup tied it at 53-53, and Orlowski's third 3 of the quarter - a high-arcing shot from the right corner - gave Maine West its first lead since 4-3.

With the Warriors converting just 37 percent (14-of-37) through three quarters, where did these fourth-quarter heroics come from?

"A burst of confidence came, I have no idea from where, though," said Orlowski, whose 85 3s broke the single-season school record of 80 by Bart Fabian in 1998-99.

Junior Tommy Solis had 10 points and senior Sargon Yousseff added 9 points for Maine West. Mather senior Ira Ratliff made seven 3s and scored a game-high 29.