Naperville Central takes double-overtime triumph from Metea Valley
It's been a season of one step forward and two steps back for Naperville Central's boys basketball team.
Friday was a leap.
The Redhawks gutted out a 57-55 double-overtime victory over visiting Metea Valley in a DuPage Valley Conference showdown as Patrick Zeng scored all 5 of his points in the second extra period.
That turned out to be the only double-overtime points for Naperville Central, but it was just enough to edge the Mustangs.
"It was such a long game, it really kept going," Zeng said. "We had to make sure we kept fighting until the end."
Manny Hess, who tallied 11 points, scored first for Metea Valley (9-12, 1-3) in the second overtime, but Zeng knocked down a go-ahead 3-pointer with 56 seconds left. The Mustangs' shot to reclaim the lead went off the mark, and Zeng responded with a pair of free throws to boost the Redhawks' advantage to 57-54 with 1.8 seconds left.
The Mustangs' Ethan Helwig, who scored a game-high 27 points, went to the line with 0.8 seconds left. He made the first free throw but failed to hit the rim while trying to miss the second attempt, which gave the ball back to Naperville Central (7-14, 2-3) to seal the outcome.
It was quite a turnaround for a Redhawks team that lost by 26 points to Metea Valley in their first meeting on Nov. 30.
"I'm extremely proud of these kids," said Redhawks coach Pete Kramer. "This is the reward for not giving up."
Metea Valley led 14-2 after a quarter and held a 32-24 lead with 3:20 left in the third quarter. That's when the Redhawks unleashed an 11-3 run to close the quarter tied at 35.
There were four lead changes and four ties in the fourth quarter before Helwig's overtime-forcing bucket with 1:25 left in regulation.
"The third quarter, they played better and made it a tight game," said Metea Valley coach Matt Walpole. "I thought we had opportunities at the end of regulation to secure the game when we had a lead. We didn't take care of the basketball, and it's hard to win when you don't take care of the basketball. The same thing happened in overtime, the same thing happened in double overtime."
A Kymari McBride basket and a pair of free throws by Myles Leavy put Metea Valley ahead 52-50 in the first overtime but Naperville Central's Chris Conway - who led his team with 24 points - drilled a jumper in the lane in the final minute to force a second overtime tied at 52.
Cam Dougherty scored 13 points for Naperville Central.
"We were just hungry," Conway said. "We're resilient. We're never going to stop fighting, and that's going to be important come playoff time."
Twitter: @kevin_schmit