Geneva 3rd at Oswego; W. Aurora moves to 4-0

Fifteen feet.

For the Oswego East boys basketball team, the distance from the free-throw line to the front of the rim must have seemed infinitely longer.

Geneva converted all but 2 of its 21 fourth-quarter attempts from the foul line, while the Wolves missed 18 of their 27 attempts for the game.

The end result was a third-place for the Vikings, who used a 45-point second-half scoring bonanza to turn back the Wolves 68-60 in the third-place game of the Hoops for Healing tournament Saturday afternoon in Oswego.

Geneva (3-1), which torched IMSA for 99 points in pool play Friday, had all five starters in double figures.

Jeremy D'Amico scored 16 of his team-high 18 points after the intermission, and the Vikings' entire team output was complemented by the contributions of Mike Santacaterina (14 points), Alex Turnowshyk (13), Max Cary (12) and Chris Jordan (11).

"We came into the half thinking that we should have been blowing them out and we were down (24-23)," said D'Amico. "The big thing (in the second half) was knocking down our free throws."

Lionel Holmes led Oswego East (1-3) with 24 points.

The senior forward and Cary were named to the five-man all-tournament team.

West Aurora 72, Julian 47:ŒMarquis Stewart and Corbin Spearman had career-high performances to lead the Blackhawks to their third straight win in Quad Cities.

West Aurora followed that win by beating Dunbar 70-55 to finish the Rock Island Tournament at 4-0.

This is the fourth time in five years the Blackhawks not only won the title but also went undefeated.

Against Julian, Stewart finished with 18 points, and Spearman scored all 16 of his points in the first half as West Aurora took a commanding 41-19 lead at the break.

All five starters finished in double figures; Tyler Thompson added 11, while Theo Hicks and Markus Cocroft had 10 apiece.