Boys basketball: Lakes stuns Fremd on Pullen’s last-second 25-footer

Although the lakes in the Lake Villa area are all frozen, Lakes High School reached the boiling point Monday.

Dorian Pullen sunk a one-handed three-point basket from 25 feet with 1.6 seconds to play to stun Fremd 60-59 in the championship game of Lakes MLK Classic in Lake Villa.

“I just had to throw it up and I hit it,” said Pullen, who knocked down 4 three-pointers and finished with 14 points.

“I honestly thought is was going to go a little left. But it went in and that is all that matters.”

It was the 12th three-point basket that the Eagles (11-7) drained in 19 attempts. The blistering shooting was contagious as five different players for Lakes connected from outside the arc.

Carter Martin, who led the Eagles with 18 points, also knocked down 4 three-pointers for Lakes, which beat Deerfield on Saturday to advance to the title game.

“We came out slow today,” said Martin, who watched as his team missed their first four shots and turned the ball over twice as Fremd built a 10-0 lead.

“But as the game went on, we kept hitting threes and that gave us momentum. Once we all started hitting threes, we knew we could win.”

Lakes, which starts four juniors including Pullen and Martin, fought all the way back against Fremd (17-2) to take a 28-27 halftime lead.

The Eagles continued to surge in the second half.

They dropped their first four shots of the third quarter, with two of those coming from outside the arc by Pullen and Dylan McCann to lead 37-29. And when Clayton Barker knocked down a free throw, Lakes increased its lead to 45-35 with 2:56 left in the third quarter.

Fremd, who was attempting its third consecutive Lakes MLK Classic tournament title, then battled back.

Led by Jordan Williams (25 points, 10 rebounds), Rafael Pinto (14 points) and Tommy Moffett (13 points), Fremd put together a 19-6 run. The Vikings tallied the final 8 points of that run without allowing Lakes to score as Fremd surged ahead 54-51 with 4:32 to play.

Lakes went long to tie the game at 54-54 on a three-pointer by Lawson Caruth.

Fremd then appeared to be in control. Charlie Chlan knocked down two free throws and Pinto converted a basket inside as the Vikings took a 58-54 lead with 1:04 to play.

Again, Lakes went outside to get warm as Martin hit a three from the corner to make it 58-57 with 42.2 seconds left.

Fremd got a free throw with 36 seconds left to increase the lead to 59-57.

After a timeout with 19 seconds left, Lakes set up a play for Martin. But Fremd denied him an open shot. Martin got the ball back to Pullen, who avoided a steal attempt by Fremd, before launching the game winner.

“Dorian just hit a heck of a shot at the end,” Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. “He has done so much for us, assist-wise. So, it was great for him to be the one to hit that shot. It was a huge program win. Anytime you can compete with a team like Fremd and get a win is really a credit to our guys.”

Fremd coach Mike Brown said that Lakes’ three-point shooting was deadly.

“Lakes really came to play today,” Brown said. “They really executed their game plan. They were incredible from three today and we were not able to set the tone on defense the way we wanted to.”