West Aurora defeats Glenbard East in overtime
That's the way to start a conference race.
West Aurora's boys basketball team forced overtime at Glenbard East, then went on an 11-4 run to win the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division battle 68-61 on Friday in Lombard.
The defending Valley champions gained slight separation in overtime by turning defense to offense. The Blackhawks (6-1, 2-0) stole the ball on consecutive Glenbard East possessions, earning a Damian Virgen lay-in and a dunk from Camron Donatlan, whose 28 points and 13 rebounds led all players.
"I think it was Jared Crutcher. He got his long arms on that, so he tipped it and I just went down the court," Donatlan said of the 6-foot-5 senior who poked the ball free.
"We just had to get our hands up on defense. They were knocking down big shots, so we had to close out with our hands up, rotate right, talk on defense, communicate," Donatlan said.
Those points off turnovers gave the Blackhawks a 63-58 lead. Glenbard East (5-3, 1-1) answered with James Peterkin inside but spanning 45 seconds Crutcher converted an inbounds play and Donatlan made three free throws for a 68-60 lead with 15.3 seconds left in overtime. Crutcher scored 13 points with 8 rebounds and 3 blocks; Virgen scored 14 points.
"We're going to learn from this and get better," said Rams coach Scott Miller. "You can't do that in practice, you've got to get out here and do it in these kind of atmospheres and these kind of games. I'm really super proud of our kids and we'll certainly bounce back."
Just 2-8 in the Valley last season and 3-26 overall, Glenbard East came all the way back from a 21-12 deficit early in the second quarter. Kenny Adams, Alijah Nelson and DaRon Hall hit 3s in that quarter and in the fourth the Rams forced 5 turnovers and scored 18 points as their fans also rallied.
"Coming into it a lot of people thought it was going to be an easy walk-on for them, but I think we played our hardest," said Nelson, the sophomore guard who made five 3-pointers and scored 18 points. Adams added 16, Peterkin 11.
Nelson laced a 3 near the top of the key and Hall made two free throws to give the Rams a 57-54 lead with 45.8 seconds left in regulation.
West Aurora's Traevon Brown rose from the top of the key himself for a 3 that tied the score 57-57 with 27 seconds left.
"After practice I work out for one hour and 30 minutes, two hours, so I shoot that shot a lot," Traevon Brown said. "So I just decided to take it and I knew it was going to fall in. Even though I missed the previous two, shooters shoot. That's what I do. It was all confidence."
"Tre stepped in and obviously made that huge 3," said Blackhawks coach Brian Johnson. "And then in overtime I thought we did a good job of getting the shots that we wanted, getting stops on defense and finishing the deal. It's never easy going on the road, especially against a good team like Glenbard East, and pulling out a win."