Antioch comeback sinks Belvidere North
His daughter caused that ear-to-ear smile that Antioch coach Tim Borries couldn't wipe off his face. Nor did he have any desire to get rid of it.
His girls basketball team was equally responsible.
Behind 17 points and 9 steals from Andi Potkonjak, 14 points, 11 rebounds and 5 steals from Lindsey Gofron, and 14 points off the bench from Megan Borries, the Sequoits rallied past Belvidere North 56-46 Tuesday night to win their season opener in front of a good-sized crowd at Antioch.
Antioch had not opened the season with a victory since 2003, when it beat Johnsburg en route to a 14-15 campaign.
“Proud dad? Yeah,” said Tim Borries, smiling. “Excited coach? Yeah.
“It was a good win for us.”
It was a great effort by Megan Borries, who as a freshman last winter was promoted to varsity midseason by her dad because of her ability to shoot the basketball.
After splitting a pair of free throws in the first half and not playing the third quarter, the coach's kid delivered in the fourth.
The timing couldn't have been better for Antioch, which found itself down 42-37 with more than three minutes gone.
A ball fake and drive got Borries to the foul line, where she hit both free throws with 4:28 left, pulling Antioch within 42-41. Tim Borries called it a turning point.
Then with 3:06 left, Borries hit a left-wing 3-pointer to put Antioch up 46-45.
“The whole season my dad's been saying, ‘Keep shooting, keep shooting. You're a shooter,' ” Megan Borries said.
She kept shooting.
“They know what I can do, even if I don't do it,” Borries said of her teammates. “I know if I don't shoot, they'll make me shoot by setting me up for open shots. Being the youngest on the team it's kind of hard, so they help me a lot.”
When Borries didn't make a shot, she drew contact and walked to the stripe.
“I was really proud of her,” Potkonjak said. “She really stepped up her game. Last year when she got in games she was a little nervous and you could tell. Tonight she was aggressive. It was great.”
“During the warmups I was so nervous,” Megan Borries aid. “But it went away once I started watching the girls a little.”
Borries scored 13 points in the fourth, going 2 of 3 from three-point range and draining 5 of 6 free throws.
Her second 3, off a pass in the post from Nicole Kelly, snapped a 46-46 tie with 2:32 to go.
“The amount of shooting she's done over the last six years in a driveway, at camps, in this gym, it paid off,” Tim Borries said. “She shot the ball very well the last four minutes.
“And the thing about it was, the girls were looking for her. It was a team effort. You got to play this game with all five.”
Antioch outscored Belvidere North 22-9 in the fourth. The Sequoits held the Blue Thunder without a field goal after Holly Hilden's three-point play with 3:24 left gave the visitors a 45-43 lead.
“The girls, at the end, were doing their job,” said Tim Borries, whose Sequoits overcome 15 points and three 3-pointers from Belvidere North's Brooke Berkenpas and 13 points from Bobbi Johns.
“We stepped up defensively and started rebounding.”