South Elgin rally falls short at East Aurora
A key matchup between Upstate Eight Conference unbeatens went down to the wire in Aurora Thursday night.
South Elgin trailed by as many as 8 points in the third quarter but rallied to take leads three times in the final period, the last coming on John Menken's layup on a backdoor feed from Sam Sutter that gave the Storm a 64-62 lead with 1:23 to play.
However, East Aurora junior Ryan Boatright scored 6 points in the final minute to lift the Tomcats to a 68-64 victory.
The win kept East Aurora (11-6, 4-0) tied atop the UEC standings with Neuqua Valley (16-1, 4-0), which defeated Bartlett 67-56 Thursday. South Elgin (13-5, 4-1) dropped into sole possession of third place.
After Menken's basket, Boatright was fouled on a drive with a minute remaining in the game and sank 2 free throws to knot the score at 64.
The Storm had a golden opportunity to retake the lead after breaking the East Aurora three-quarter-court press, but a layup attempt rolled off the rim into the hands of the Tomcats.
The Storm fouled the electric Boatright, who is now being courted by Kentucky, Wake Forest, Tennessee, Miami and Kansas State since he decommitted to USC. He made the first free throw in the super bonus with 41.5 seconds left to give East Aurora a 1-point lead, but his second shot missed.
However, 6-foot-5 senior center Tom Okapal fought to get the rebound along the baseline. It was the Tomcats' 12th offensive rebound of the contest.
"What hurt us was their offensive rebounding," South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said. "Their best offense tonight was offensive rebounding, how many second-chance points they got. We talked about it in every huddle that we have to get the first rebound, not the second or third, but the first rebound. We didn't get that a lot. We got the second and third rebound."
After a timeout, Boatright sealed the victory with an old-fashioned three-point play. Coming off a double screen, he drove the left edge of the lane and put up a leaner that found net while drawing the foul. His free throw gave the Tomcats a 68-64 lead with 24.1 seconds left.
"I wanted the ball in my hands," Boatright said. "If they collapsed, I would have passed it to Snoop (Viser) in the corner. They didn't collapse, so I went to the left and when I saw the opening I just jumped up and used my body to get the ball in."
Down 2 possessions, South Elgin called timeout with 9.7 seconds left, then missed a 3-pointer to end a well-played, intense game.
"I tell you what, those types of games are fun when you pull them out in the end," East Aurora coach Wendell Jeffries said with a laugh.
Jeffries credited South Elgin's game plan, which at times included playing four different defenses in a 6-possession span to force the off-balance Tomcats to continually change their attack strategy. The Storm employed a box-and-one, 1-3-1 and 2-3 zone defenses and hounding man-to-man coverage.
The changeups worked as East Aurora's 5 turnovers in the third quarter allowed the Storm to rally from a 37-32 halftime deficit. Junior guard Sam Sutter sank three of his six 3-pointers in the period to keep South Elgin within striking distance. Senior Sam Jordt (11 points) tied the game for the first time at 62 when he splashed a 3-pointer with 6:48 left in the fourth quarter.
However, it was too much Boatright down the stretch for South Elgin to handle.
"It's always tough losing because you want to come out and win, but we're keeping our heads high," Storm freshman point guard Jake Maestranzi said. "We'll let this game go. We've got Glenbard North coming up and we're going to play hard against them."