Stubblefield's 34 leads Willowbrook past Leyden
Everett Stubblefield III hurt Leyden time and again with 3-pointers that drifted closer and closer to halfcourt.
Then he finished off the Eagles with a vicious dunk in the waning seconds of Willowbrook's 73-63 West Suburban Gold Conference victory Friday in Villa Park.
The 5-foot-10 senior guard was honored before the game for becoming the quickest player in program history to score 1,000 points. Stubblefield immediately put on a show from beyond the arc that pushed the Warriors (9-14, 3-4) to a 10-0 lead.
To cap a 34-point performance - his third 30-point performance of the week - a thunderous one-handed dunk brought the home crowd to its feet as he exited the game.
"I wanted it pretty badly," Stubblefield said. "Everyone's been telling me to dunk the ball and I haven't dunked one in a game in a while. Everyone was telling me to do it this game so I had to do it for the fans."
Leyden (10-10, 2-5) trailed the whole game but didn't go down easy despite falling behind 47-33 midway through the third quarter. Justin Timmerhaus scored 11 of his 14 points in the third quarter to bring the Eagles within 5 points.
Noah Guadalupe, who along with Tyler Morgan scored 14 points, converted a 3-point play to narrow the gap to 51-46 with 2:06 left in the game. Willowbrook, however, made eight straight free throws to keep its distance.
"We've got to find a way to come out to a better start than that because it's becoming a habit," said Leyden coach Bill Heisler. "Loved our effort and energy tonight. I felt like there were so many chances where we could have gotten even closer. We executed and had chances. Sometimes it just didn't go in."
Sam Tumilty scored 20 points for Willowbrook including seven fourth-quarter free throws. Five different players knocked down 3-pointers for Leyden.
"That's where most of our problems come, is closing out the games," said Willowbrook coach Chris Perkins. "We're in almost every game and talented enough to compete with everybody. Now it's just a matter of closing all the games out."
Twitter: @kevin_schmit