Palatine stuns Schaumburg
Palatine's defense rose to the occasion Friday night at Schaumburg - and the Pirates stunned the Saxons 43-40 in Mid-Suburban West boys basketball action.
Sophomore guard Michael Orris came up with the big play when he stole an inbound pass with 21 seconds to play.
Orris, who finished with 11 points, was fouled and hit the first of 2 shots to tie the game 40-40.
Kyle Held of the Pirates (8-13, 3-5) rebounded the missed free throw and missed his inside shot, but forward Nat Pearson rebounded the ball and was fouled.
Pearson hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to give the Pirates a 42-40 lead with 16 seconds left.
Johnny Kirk (12 points) of the Saxons (10-9, 4-4) missed a shot and the Pirates' Mykyta Cheshko (8 points, 8 rebounds) snared the rebound and was fouled. Cheshko made 1 of 2 shots with 1.4 seconds left.
A midcourt attempt by the Saxons fell short.
"When I stole the pass, we were face-guarding," Orris said. "I saw (Declan) Geraghty come out of the corner and I read the pass. I guess I was in the right place at the right time. Tonight we turned up the defense."
Pearson scored 12 points, all in the second half, to help the cause.
"They (Schaumburg) hit their free throws down the stretch to beat us at our place," said Pearson about the 50-37 loss Dec. 4. "And we hit ours tonight. I give a lot of credit to my teammates. They got me the ball in the right situations."
The Saxons, who led 35-27 with 6:15 left, hit 9-of-14 free throws - but just 3 of their last 7.
"We didn't finish the game very well,"said Saxons coach Matt Walsh. "We let them get rebounds off of their missed free throws. They made the big plays."
The Saxons played without Glenn Frost (suspended).
The Pirates led 11-4 after the first quarter, but the Saxons rallied to take the lead at 17-14 and did not trail again until the last 16 seconds.
"This was a good turnaround game for us," said Pirates coach Eric Millstone. "The last few games our defense has let us down.
"So it was fitting that they helped win this one tonight. We've struggled at the line, but we hit 8 of our last 10 and made some nice defensive stops."