Lisle puts together timely run to down Coal City

Lisle put together one good run at just the right time Friday, and it turned out to be enough.

The Lions trailed 44-40 with a minute to go in the third quarter, and then they scored the next 13 points to build a 9-point lead, and they held on at the end to defeat a tenacious Coal City 62-57 in the Interstate Eight Conference opener for both teams.

"We didn't execute our defense as well as we would have liked," said Lisle coach Mark LaScala. "Then during that run our defense settled down a little bit and it fueled our offense."

"We were letting them get easy drives," Lisle's Chris Wray said. "We let them get into their offense. We had to get up in their faces and toughen up a little bit. But we pulled it together at the end and played tough."

The Lions (4-2) were sparked by 6-foot-5 center Wray, who finished with 24 points and 11 boards.

"My teammates passed me the ball and put me in a position where I could get good shots," Wray said.

Coal City led by 2 at halftime and then built a 6-point lead in the third quarter before the Lions settled down.

Lisle took the lead 45-44 at the end of the period when Ryan Liss hit a 3-pointer and Wray scored from the outside with four seconds remaining.

And for the first half of the final quarter, it was all Lions.

They scored the first 8 points of the period to make it 53-44 with Wray, Liss, who finished with 19 points, and Marcus Wilson doing the damage.

"We were putting our offense together and playing as a team," Wray said.

But the Coalers weren't finished.

They continued to battle for steals and offensive rebounds and twice closed the gap to four points.

In the closing minute they fouled repeatedly and the Lions were able to convert 5 of 8 from the free-throw line to maintain the cushion they needed for the 62-57 victory.

"I think we're a lot better than the score indicated," Wray said.

"When you play a senior-dominated team like Coal City, you expect a good game," LaScala said. "They executed their offense really well, especially in the first half. When they were scoring buckets early, it energized them."

Coal City's balanced attack produced 4 double-figure scorers led by Nick Green, who scored 16 and added 8 rebounds.

"There was a four- or five-minute stretch in the second half where we disappeared," said Coal City coach Chris Spencer. "But give Lisle a lot of credit. They came out firing in the fourth quarter and we took too long to answer. We waited until the last two minutes before we started playing hard again."