Boys basketball: St. Viator battles for hard-fought regional final win over Lakes

The St. Viator Class 3A regional final between the host and top-seeded Lions and No. 6 seeded Lakes went down to the wire and you might say it was 'only' a matter of time before the hosts would pull it out.

Sophomore Jacob Only scored eight (six free throws) of his team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter and added stellar defense to help lift St. Viator to a hard-fought 43-40 victory over Lakes, giving the Lions back-to-back 3A regional crowns and the third for Mike O'Keefe in his fifth full season as the Lions head coach.

St. Viator (21-11) will face No. 7 Lake Forest (15-16) in Tuesday's 7 p.m. Deerfield sectional semifinal.

With the game tied at 37 and just 1:32 left, Only made a steal under the Lakes basket and quickly flipped a pass to junior Dawson Charles, who went right up for a 6-footer from the baseline for a 39-37 that the Lions would never relinquish.

Just a minute later, it was Only's steal near half court that resulted in his 2 free throws with 43,8 seconds left that made it 41-37 and the Lions held on despite a 3-pointer from Ben Newcomb (game-high 19 points) with 6.2 seconds left.

Lakes quickly fouled Only before the inbounds pass and the sophomore guard made 2 free throws for the 43-40 final score still with 6.2 seconds remaining. The Eagles missed a 60-foot 3-pointer trying to send the game to OT.

""That's just what he does," Charles (11 points) said of Only. "He's Jacob. He plays defense. He's scrappy. We get stops and this is the outcome, a dub."

"In my opinion, Jacob Only is the best point guard in the area," O'Keefe said. "I don't care if he's a sophomore. I don't care if he;s young. There are a lot of other kids who are good and they get the hype. But if I'm picking a point guard to run the show on both ends, it''s Jacob Only."

Carter Martin's 3-pointer just before the first-quarter buzzer gave Lakes an 11-10 lead.

But the Lions answered with a 10-0 run and never trailed again.

The big surge began with back to back 3-pointers by Only and junior Jack Leonard followed by Charles' driving layup and a free throw by Charles made it 19-11 with 5:33 left.

Lakes coach Chris Snyder called his second timeout with 3:13 left until halftime.

After a short bank shot by Only made it 21-11, Lakes scored its first points of the period with 1:48 left on a 3-point play by Martin, who ended the half with a 3-pointer that got the Eagles to within 23-17 at intermission."I thought our guys competed really well, especially after it could have gotten away in that second quarter," said Snyder, whose team finished 17-14. "Our guys fought right back into it and gave themselves a chance. That's all I can ask for."

Martin had all eight i\of his points in the first half.

"We had to shut down No. 5 (Martin) in the second half and stay focused on No. 22 (Newcomb), Only said; "It feels good to get this win but the job isn't done. We still have a long road ahead of us."

The Eagles got to within 23-21 with a 17-footer by Ben Newcomb with 5:45 left and a putback from Jaylen Pinkard with 5:23 at teh start of the second half.

But Viator answered with Viator and led by as much as 30-23 in the third period and owned a 32-28 lead heading into the fourth quarter, thanks to a pair of free throws by Only. "We were just playing together, making the right reads and doing the right things,: Dawson added. "We wouldn't have won if we didn't play as a team. But we played as a team and got the dub. We got stops and this is the outcome. we get dubs. This feels good. We're trying to go alle way. That's all I can say."

Senior Sean Halpin and sophomore Landon Ray each chipped in 5 for Viator.

"It was the prettiest game of basketball ever but we made winning plays at the end and that's all you can ask for at this time of the year, "O'Keefe said. "Defensively we did a heck of a job. Lakes is a heck of a team, They are one of two teams to beat Fremd this year and they beat Deerfield earlier this year. They're a tough team, they're well coached and they got three stud juniors. And it's a a great win for us. We're excited about moving on to the sectional."

Jaylen Pinkard and Clayton Barker each chipped in 4 points for Lakes followed by Aidan Hopkins (3) and Dylan McCann (2).

"It was a good high school basketball games," Snyder said. "It's the best night of the high school season, regional night, and just two teams going at each other defensively. O bviously it hurts t o be on this end of it but it was fun, St. Viator did what it needed to do to get that win. Hats off t o them."

Snyder praised his team for not letting the 6:12 scoring drought at the start of the second quarter affect his team's defense.

"I thought that was a credit to our guys defending," He said. "T hey've always bought into that defensive effort and just came up a little short but not due to a lack of effort or anything like that. The guys fought. There were a lot of highs for this group this season. It was a good group to be around and we're going to miss the four seniors who graduate."