Timothy Christian survives Fenton's comeback attempt

The Timothy Christian boys basketball team had a couple substantial leads against Fenton, and twice the Trojans looked like they would cruise to victory Friday in Bensenville.

As it turned out, though, neither of those leads were safe.

The Bison clawed, scratched and fought their way back twice and had a last-shot opportunity to either win or at least tie it in the waning seconds.

Fenton junior Diamon King's 3-point attempt with 2 seconds left was just a hair off and rebounded by Trojans senior Danardo Jones as time expired, preserving his team's slim 45-43 victory.

Still, Timothy Christian coach Scott Plaisier couldn't help but feel like his crew survived rather than won.

"That's a tribute to (Fenton), that's kind of the style they play," Plaisier said. "They are never out of a game with their 1-3-1, and the way they kind of make you uncomfortable."

Coming out the gate, it looked like Timothy Christian would be more than comfortable. The Trojans jumped out to an 11-2 lead with bookend 3-pointers by juniors Zach Orange and Jack Baldridge. They added another 9-0 run in the second quarter to go up 20-11, but Fenton fought back to close the deficit to 24-21 at the half.

They cut it to 1 point on a King spin move in the lane for the first basket of the third quarter, but Timothy Christian answered with a 14-0 run that put the lead back to 38-23 with 2:55 in the third quarter.

Game over? Wrong.

Take an 8-3 Fenton run to end the third and add a 9-2 spurt to start the fourth and suddenly the Bison were down just 43-40 with 2:12 to go.

That made the last minute pure theater. With 55 seconds to go, Timothy Christian traveled, but Fenton couldn't capitalize on the other end. At 20 seconds, the Trojans missed the front end of a 1-and-1, which ended up in King's hands.

That led to his last-second shot that just missed.

"I saw the clock, there were four seconds, I dribble it, it's one second, I pass, it's two seconds," King said. "I had the confidence to shoot it, so I shot it. I wish it would have turned out better."

It was another in a series of tough finishes for the Bison (3-8 overall, 1-2 Metro Suburban), a fact not lost on coach Chaz Taft.

"This is our third game (losing) by two and we've lost two by one," he said. "I love my guys. They fight, we practice hard, we get after it. Like I tell them, it's a process."

Junior Detwan Yoakum scored 13 for the Bison, while sophomore Marcus Rule had 11. King led Fenton with 8 rebounds.

Timothy Christian's Josh Harris was a bit of a revelation Friday as he led all scorers with 17 points including a trio of 3-pointers, two of them coming in the big 14-0 third-quarter run. The Trojans needed every single one of them.

"In practice, we always work on late-game situations on how to keep the lead or get the lead when we're down," Harris said. "When we practice late-game situations, we practice holding the ball, take care of it at the end and then get into the play if we need one."

Jones chipped in 9 points and 7 rebounds for the Trojans (4-4, 1-1).