Boys basketball: Render’s buzzer-beating 3 lifts Antioch over Addison Trail

This year's edition of the Elgin Holiday Tournament has seven new teams in the field for its 43rd running this week.

Two of those teams, Addison Trail and Antioch, battled one another Monday on the Chesbrough Fieldhouse court to the wire where it came down to one player's charge to not give up.

That player was Sequoits senior guard Mark Render.

When given a second chance off an offensive board from Chance Parsons, Render took the pass from Parsons and returned beyond the three-point to drain the game-winning triple with 0.5 seconds remaining to lift Antioch to a 53-52 win over the No. 8 seeded Blazers.

The victory sends Antioch (2-8) back to Elgin for a 3:15 p.m. Tuesday quarterfinal against No. 1 seed and reigning tourney champ Waukegan (8-3), a 100-35 victor over St. Edward on Monday.

"Outside of two losses, we've been down a possession or two or had the lead in the fourth quarter and we haven't closed," Sequoits coach Sean Connor said.

"Today, we finally closed. We did everything we needed to do on defense. They play for each other and Mark has been our guy that needed to make some big plays and he made some at the end."

In addition to his game-winning heroics, Render connected on a driving layup with 67 ticks left that pulled them within 50-48.

After a Manuel Roque charity toss put Addison Trail ahead 51-48 with a minute to play, the final pair of freshman swingman Miles Marabella's 10 points on a successful drive down the lane got it to 51-50.

Camren Salerno’s free throw put Addison Trail back up 52-50 to set up the game's final 12 seconds of play.

"It was such a crazy circumstance where we were down two and didn't even need the 3," said Render, who paced Antioch with 14 points.

"I was just in the mode ready to win the game for our team. I don't know how to explain it. I can't describe the feeling especially when you hit the game-winner. It's a good feeling, I'll say that."

Roque and Salerno shared game-high scoring honors for Addison Trail (3-5) who will face the 4-6 Green Wave in the first game of the consolation bracket at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning.

"Our goal for tomorrow is to come back and keep putting things together," Blazers coach Cory Little said. "It's a long season that we still have in front of us."