East Aurora stuns Neuqua Valley
It turns out the 40-point performance by East Aurora's Ryan Boatright on Wednesday night against Naperville Central at the Class 4A Plainfield East regional was just the appetizer.
An overflow crowd of 1,500-plus was treated to the main course on Friday as Boatright erupted for a personal-high 45 points - including a mind-boggling total of 35 in the fourth quarter and overtime - as the Tomcats held off Neuqua Valley 76-68 to deny the Wildcats their fifth consecutive regional crown.
"Every possession counted," Boatright said. "We knew we were going to play a close game and we just wanted a chance at the end, and we took care of it."
Actually, the Tomcats (19-9) got a chance to celebrate twice. They thought they had won the game 57-54 in regulation after a Neuqua 3-point try glanced off the rim in the waning seconds. But as Neuqua's Dwayne Evans tracked the ball down in the corner, coach Todd Sutton signaled for a timeout.
After an officials' roundtable, 1.8 seconds were put on the clock. As fate would have it, Rahjan Muhammad took the inbounds pass from Tyler Sutton and calmly swished a 25-foot 3-pointer at the real buzzer, sending the Neuqua bench into ecstasy and the Tomcats' bench into depression.
"The toughest job I had all night was after we thought we had the game won, but then they put the 1.8 seconds on the clock," said East Aurora coach Wendell Jeffries. "When Muhammad hit the 3, it was like a morgue in the huddle. I was thinking, 'How am I going to pick them up?' Give the kids the credit, they bounced back from that."
Not surprisingly, Boatright, who described Muhammad's shot as "devastating," was at the forefront of East Aurora's resuscitation. After the teams traded offensive fouls to open overtime, Boatright twisted inside for a layup then stole the ball at midcourt. He earned an intentional foul on his drive to the hoop, made two free throws and then added two more on the subsequent possession, and suddenly the Tomcats were up 6 on the way to a 10-0 run and 67-57 lead that removed any down-the-stretch suspense from a game that had more than enough through regulation.
"In overtime it just blew up," said Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton. "We had some turnovers that led to steals that led to uncontested layups."
Looking back, the Wildcats (27-3) may have lost the game in the first quarter when they had 6 offensive rebounds but couldn't convert, going 2 for 13 from the field as the Tomcats opened a 12-4 lead after one period. Neuqua did battle back, however, behind Kareem Amedu, Evans and Jim Stocki to score the first 10 points of the second quarter and trail only 19-18 at the half. Three-pointers from Muhammad, Sam Johnson and Greg Williams in the third quarter offset 9 points from East Aurora's Tramell Weathersby as the teams went to the final quarter tied at 31.
Evans, who did not score a field goal until seven minutes remained in the game, tried to match Boatright down the stretch with 12 fourth-quarter points before Muhammad's clutch 3 turned the game on its ear. Boatright had the last laugh, though, and the 5-foot-10 guard even capped his night with a two-handed jam for his final points with nine seconds to play.