Peterson tips it Conant's way
None of Taylor Peterson's 12 points was as big as the two at the end.
His tip-in of a Christian Sotos miss with 0.5 seconds left in overtime gave Conant a 57-56 victory at Barrington. It was the Cougars' first Mid-Suburban West boys basketball win of the season.
Coming out of a timeout with 29.4 seconds left, Conant (9-6, 1-3) put the ball in Sotos' hands to take the final shot. He drove to the basket as time was winding down, and his contested shot bounced toward Peterson - who stretched up and tapped it in.
After discussion among the coaches and officials, it was determined that half a second still remained when Barrington called timeout. Peterson came to the rescue again, stealing the long inbound pass as time expired.
"I was supposed to be ready for a pass if Sotos got in trouble and then crash the boards," Peterson said. "I was in the right place at the right time."
A similar situation at the end of regulation didn't turn out the same way for the Broncos (9-7, 1-3). Ben Bartz got the call as time was winding down with the score tied 47-47. His shot didn't go in, and the tip also missed, forcing the overtime.
"We had the (play) call, and we got the shot we wanted," said Barrington coach Bryan Tucker. "That was his bread and butter shot. We had the tip. It didn't go in, but theirs did."
Defending the potential winning shot brought back memories of a similar situation at Hoffman Estates earlier in the season, a game that was lost at the foul line after time had expired.
"You're darn right. That's exactly what went through our minds," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "We're really happy to get a (division) win. It gets the monkey off our back."
The back-and-forth contest saw Conant lead 13-9 after the first quarter, trail 23-22 at halftime and lead 36-33 after three. There were six lead changes just in the overtime.
Andrew Spangler scored 12 of his game-high 13 points in the second half, including a putback with 52.8 seconds left in overtime. Peterson and Sotos each scored a dozen, and Garett Gatz added 10 for the Cougars.
Barrington played most of the fourth quarter and the entire overtime without leading scorer Bryan Wegner, who turned his ankle in a scramble under the basket. He still led the Broncos with 12. James Stack scored 11, and Bartz and Greg Gerrard each scored 9.
"We don't feel like we played really well," McCormack said. "We don't want to have to rely on a great athletic play by Taylor to get the tip-in."