Wheaton North celebrates win vs. Glenbard West

It's been a while since Rowan McGowen hit a game-winning basket. It will be a lot longer before anybody forgets the one he made Friday night.

McGowen swished a high, arching shot from about 25 feet to the right of the key with less than three seconds remaining to lift Wheaton North to a stunning 54-51 victory over Glenbard West in a nonconference boys basketball game Friday in Wheaton.

"I was looking for the best look I could get," the 6-foot-5 junior forward said. "I thought that was it. It was from pretty deep, but I just let it fly and it went in. I actually hit a game-winner my freshman year, but this one's definitely a lot sweeter."

McGowen's game-winner came moments after Glenbard West's Justin Pierce went coast-to-coast to tie the game at 51-51. The Wheaton North student section stormed the floor after McGowen's basket but were quickly ushered back into the stands after the referees granted Glenbard West a timeout with 1.8 seconds left.

"We thought we won the game," McGowen said. "We're going crazy. It's hard to refocus. But I thought we did a good job and luckily they didn't have a shot at the end."

A long pass to Pierce from under the Wheaton North basket went off his fingertips and rolled away as time expired.

"We really needed this," said Falcons 6-3 junior Luke Anthony, whose back-to-back 3-pointers wiped out a 37-31 deficit early in the fourth quarter. "We've been struggling a lot lately. We got blown out by (Wheaton Warrenville) South the other night.

"We played one of our best games in a while tonight," he added. "Hopefully, this will keep us going for the future."

Anthony led Wheaton North (12-7) with 18 points, McGowen finished with 15 and 6-3 junior Michael Gehl added 10.

Pierce had 24 points to lead Glenbard West, including 12 over the first 10 minutes of play as the Hilltoppers jumped out to a 21-9 lead. But Wheaton North went on a 10-0 run when Pierce went to the bench after picking up his second foul with 5:46 remaining in the second quarter and trailed just 23-19 at halftime.

"(The Falcons) got a little confidence going for sure," Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder said. "At the same time, we want to protect Justin (from picking up a third foul). It's a hard call. It didn't really work out."

Alex Passi added 23 points for Glenbard West (16-2), which suffered its second loss in three games.

"When you start hot like that (15-0), we're not going to sneak up on anybody," Hoder said. "The attention is part of it, but these are teams that are playing for a sectional seed and they're well-coached and they hard-working kids. You're definitely going to get a great effort out of these guys."