Depleted St. Charles East knocks off West Aurora
Already without the services of 6-foot-5 sophomore Justin Hardy (concussion protocol) and junior guard Zach Mitchell (broken wrist), St. Charles East's boys basketball team suffered another blow Friday night with the loss of senior starting guard Evan DiLeonardi (stomach flu).
Despite being short-handed, the Saints (4-1) responded with an impressive 59-55 Upstate Eight Conference crossover triumph over West Aurora (1-3) in St. Charles.
Senior guard James McQuillan knocked down a pair of free throws with 2.4 seconds remaining to seal the deal for the Saints.
Nearly a minute earlier, McQuillan, who poured in a game-high 26 points with 5 assists, canned a 3-pointer to put the Saints on top 53-52 with 51 seconds left.
After sophomore guard Camron Donatlan (19 points, 9 rebounds) hit a pair of free throws to give the Blackhawks a 54-53 lead with 42 seconds left, McQuillan split a pair of foul shots to tie the score at 54-54 with 33 seconds remaining.
When McQuillan, who made his first 12 free throws, finally missed a foul shot, senior teammate J.T. Ford (19 points, 6 rebounds) grabbed the offensive rebound and scored the go-ahead basket to put the Saints up 56-54 with 30 seconds remaining.
"That board by J.T. was huge," said McQuillan.
"James was cool as ice from the free-throw line and J.T played great offensively," said Saints coach Patrick Woods. "You take 50 points out of our lineup and come up with that - I'm ecstatic right now."
St. Charles East extended its 24-21 halftime lead to 37-26 midway through the third quarter following the fourth of five 3-pointers by Ford.
The Saints still led 42-33 with 4:56 remaining before a steal and layup by Donatlan capped a 19-8 run as the Blackhawks went on top 52-50 with 1:06 left.
"We knew he was going to be great coming in," Woods said of Donatlan. "Evan (DiLeonardi) was our matchup on him. I thought we did the best we could with what we had."
Sophomore Zach Robinson came off the bench to score 6 points while senior Zach Hondlik added 3 points and 6 rebounds.
"We knew we were missing some key players," said McQuillan. "I thought everybody that came in did a great job."
DaQuan Cross scored 12 points for the Blackhawks, who enjoyed a 42-24 rebounding edge but were outscored 30-6 from beyond the 3-point arc.
"I thought we did a great job on the boards overall but we gave up some big offensive rebounds at the end," said Blackhawks coach Brian Johnson. "It wasn't pretty but it was a good game to be in right now - to learn and move forward. We learned that we've got to get a rebound at the end of the game."