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Bradley-Bourbonnais narrowly defeats Glenbard East

The shooting percentages for the Bradley-Bourbonnais and Glenbard East boys basketball teams were so hot in the third quarter Saturday night that they glowed.

But points became a rarer commodity in the final period of the final game of the Rams' annual When Sides Collide shootout, and the Boilermakers, ranked 19th in one poll, got them when needed and edged the Rams 53-51.

The game was tied at 44 after three quarters with Glenbard East (12-9) outscoring Bradley (13-4) by an 18-14 advantage. The Boilermakers were 6 of 9 from the field and the Rams were 8 of 11.

Micah Bradford, who scored a game-high 21 points, hit his team's first basket of the final period about a minute in for a 46-44 Boilermakers advantage.

The score remained that way until Michael Finley's layup tied the contest. With 3:50 left in the game, Bradford hit a 3-point basket to put Bradley up 49-46. About a 90 seconds later, the Rams' Carlos Meyers pulled his team to within a point. Then the Boilermakers went up by 5 on buckets from Gerald Duckworth and Zachary Hollywood.

Meyers added his second 3 of the night to make it a 53-51 game and the Rams called a timeout with 1:01 remaining. Nine seconds later, the Boilermakers missed a free throw. Glenbard East drove to the basket but couldn't put through a couple of shots. Same thing happened with nine seconds left when the Boilermakers again missed a free throw and Glenbard East could not convert good pressure into points.

"We tried to extend the floor and look for gaps and try to get some 3s," said Glenbard East coach Scott Miller. "But the ball did not quite bounce our way enough."

Finley and Zach Walsh each led the Rams with 12 points. Walsh led the game with four 3s.

The game was tied at 18 at the end of the first quarter as the Boilermakers shot 6 of 12 and the Rams were 6 of 14. The Rams hit for four 3s in that period with three coming from Walsh. The Boilermakers led 30-26 at halftime with the help of Hollywood, a 6-foot-9 forward, scoring 13 of his 19 points during the first 16 minutes.

Glenbard East returns to action Tuesday at Downers Grove North and gets back to Upstate Eight Conference play Friday when it hosts South Elgin.

Miller said the Rams will benefit in a big way from competing in this tournament.

"It's a regional, sectional atmosphere. And we tried to look at every possession in that way. I thought we played 98 percent tonight. A couple of possessions did not go our way.

"We're tied for first (in the UEC Valley). We will learn from this and get better."

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