Maine West rally falls short

Conor Hart and Maine West came oh, so close, to an incredible comeback victory Friday night against visiting Niles North.

Hart, a senior guard, played thru the pain of a nagging back injury to score 9 of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter as the Warriors cut a 17-point deficit down to 3 points.

But Maine West could get no closer as free throws in the final seconds by the Vikings’ Malachi Nix and Badral Enkh-Ulzil helped seal a 51-43 Central Suburban North win.

“We talked about getting hustle points,” said Warriors coach Erik McNeill of his team facing a 43-26 deficit with only 5:55 remaining in the game. “We were able to do that but it was too late.”

While Niles North (4-4, 1-2) was converting on some clutch foul shots, Maine West (4-4, 2-1) was misfiring from the free-throw line, especially in the first half. The Warriors missed 8 of 14 free throws in the first two quarters and finished only 13-of-23 for the contest.

“We just missed too many, especially early on,” said McNeill. “We were working hard on the defensive end and then to come down, get fouled and miss the free throws — that’s tough.”

Both teams played ferocious defense through three quarters, but the Vikings solved Maine West’s zone at the start of the fourth.

“We finally got some penetration,” said Niles North coach Glenn Olson, a Rolling Meadows graduate. “Their matchup was giving us fits, but I actually felt good about the way we played in the second and third quarter,and the first few minutes of the fourth.

“We’ve won some big games, but we’ve never been up by plus 16 points that late. We’re young and inexperienced, and we stopped attacking — but we were able to finish.”

After long-range 3s by Tafari Becford and Mychael Henley helped the Vikings open up the big advantage, an intense Hart led the Warriors back and a rebound and layup by the senior with 40 seconds remaining closed the gap to 46-43.

With 18 seconds left Maine West thought it had a clean steal and looked for a drive to the basket to cut it to a point, but instead a foul was called on the Warriors.

Nix hit his first foul shot, missed the second, but Niles North corralled a key offensive rebound and 2 more free throws secons later by Enkh-Ulzil sealed the deal.

Maine West senior Dylan Carson pitched in with 6 points, Kevin Garcia and Will Hepburn had 4 apiece, while Hart and 6-foot-9 forward Cody Zimmerman contributed on the glass with 8 rebounds each.

Henley, who played with a bandage on his hand due to injury, led the Vikings with 15 points.

“I’ve been working hard in practice on my shooting,”said the senior guard, “and tonight the shots were falling.”