Baldwin's career night lifts Elgin past St. Charles East in OT
Elgin's Lavion Baldwin has a quiet demeanor about him, much like a Clark Kent, but on Friday night the senior played more like Superman.
Baldwin scored a career-high 32 points, including 15 in the fourth quarter, as the Maroons rallied from 14 points down with less than 4 minutes left to play in regulation to pull out a 77-72 win in overtime against visiting St. Charles East in Upstate Eight River Division boys basketball action at Elgin's Chesbrough Field House.
With 31 seconds left in overtime Desmond Douglas, who had been held without a basket since early in the first quarter, gave the Maroons the lead for good 74-71 by converting a 3-point play after taking an outlet pass from Keshaun Baldwin and driving into the lane for a layup.
'We were almost ready to bring in the reserves off the bench," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. "But we didn't give up. We started getting in people's face on defense and Lavion just took over. He knows he's a senior and his career here is coming to an end and it hasn't gone quite the way we he would have liked it. But he has hung in there and really stepped up his game. He seems determined to finish strong."
The Maroons (15-7, 4-4) trailed 63-49 when Baldwin, who had six 3-pointers, caught fire. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Baldwin started the improbable rally. Later in the quarter a pair of free throws and another 3-pointer by Baldwin on consecutive trips down the floor for the Maroons narrowed the gap to 65-60 with 1:48 to play.
A driving baseline layup by Baldwin with 1:15 left in the fourth inched the Maroons to within 66-62. Moments later he followed that with a steal and a thunderous slam dunk to get the Maroons to within 66-64 with 48 seconds left.
The Maroons then forced a turnover at midcourt and Reggie Cole scored a transition layup with 38 seconds left to tie the game at 66-66 and force overtime. The Saints turned the ball over on their final possession of regulation and the Maroons missed on two shots in the final seconds.
Baldwin wasn't done. After the Maroons fell behind 70-66 early in the overtime Baldwin nailed another 3-pointer to get the Maroons back on track.
"We just kept our heads up and never gave up," Baldwin said. "I got into a zone and just stayed in attack mode. I've been playing much more aggressive. I've always been able to hit some outside shots, but my coaches have been telling me all along that my best ability is taking the ball to the rim. I've been doing that more lately and it's made a big difference."
Cole added 23 points for the Maroons.
The Saints (10-9, 4-3) made just 5-of-13 free throws in the fourth quarter and the overtime period and also had 3 costly turnovers in the final 2 minutes of regulation.
"The missed free throws and turnovers just did us in," Saints coach Pat Woods said. "Number 12 (Baldwin) is a dangerous player for them. He just got hot and we couldn't do any thing to stop him."
Justin Hardy had 16 points to lead the Saints. Evan DiLeonardi added 13 points and JT Fort and Zach Mitchell each had 11.