Bonder helps rally Libertyville to victory

Eight was enough.

And it happened quickly for Libertyville sophomore Chase Bonder.

The 6-foot-5 varsity rookie made a buzzer-beating layup to end the third quarter, sank a foul-line jump shot early in the fourth and then drained a 3-pointer. The 8 points were part of his 10 off the bench, as the host Wildcats rallied to defeat Champaign Central 50-39 on Saturday night.

Bonder's teammates noted his nickname is the "The New Bondo."

"It's really passed on from my dad (Kraig)," Bonder said. "I've had it since middle school."

Will Moore led Libertyville (9-4) with a team-high 18 points, and Jackson Watson added 11. The matchup between the two schools was set up by Libertyville athletic director John Woods, who served as basketball coach and athletic director at Champaign Central for 25 years.

Champaign Central (7-9) scored the game's first 6 points and had a 15-9 lead after the opening quarter. Khailieo Terry scored 4 of his team-high 14 points to help the Maroons increase their lead to 21-9 with 6:47 left in the second quarter. Terry eclipsed 1,000 points for his career in the game.

Libertyville started to turn the game in its favor after calling a timeout, closing the half with a 14-3 run to get within 24-23 at the break.

"It's what this team is capable of doing," Libertyville coach Brian Zyrkowski said. "We always talk about not getting off a slow start. That timeout was one of those, 'Relax, slow down, we're a better team than this.' Hats off to our guys for playing great defense down the stretch in the first half. We didn't do a great job of sharing the ball in the first half, but the second half we got it going. This balanced attack was one of the reasons we got this victory."

Bonder's buzzer-beater gave the Wildcats a 35-33 advantage going into the final quarter. When he opened the fourth with back-to-back buckets, the Libertyville lead was 40-33 with 5:45 remaining.

"It really got our team going," Bonder said. "After that, I just tried to get my teammates open. I feel comfortable with the speed of (varsity) play. My teammates are awesome. They treat me like anybody else."

Libertyville extended its lead to 13 points in the final minutes, as Moore dropped in 7 points, including a 3-pointer.

After being down 21-9, the Wildcats outscored the Maroons 41-18 in almost three quarters.

"We knew Libertyville had experience and they play hard," Champaign Central coach Jeff Finke said. "What they do and do well is to compete for 32 minutes. Our guys didn't and (Libertyville) did. We just stopped executing on both ends, missed some easy shots and took some bad shots. We did punch them a little bit early, but they took it to us the whole last three quarters."