Elgin's rally from 20 down falls just short at Bartlett
Bartlett honored graduating basketball, dance and cheer teams members on its senior night Friday.
But an Elgin junior came close to spoiling the event.
Sparked by Jeff Lomax's five baskets and two free throws in the final frame, Elgin rallied from a 20-point deficit and fell just short of pulling out a win. Bartlett held on for a 57-55 Upstate Eight Conference victory.
"It's something we have been hoping to do, the kids have been fighting hard. We have been telling them give us a chance in the fourth quarter," Elgin coach Todd Allen said. "Today we had that opportunity so it was good to see."
The fourth quarter started with the Hawks up, 49-29.
Maroon Adam Vogt's 3-point shot from the right corner opened the scoring in the fourth quarter and started a 12-0 Elgin run, six by Lomax. With 4:30 left to play, Bartlett's lead had been cut to 49-41.
Elgin (5-20, 1-12) continued to whittle the lead away. Vogt reduced Bartlett's margin to 56-53 with 14.3 seconds in the game when he canned two free throws.
With only 2.7 seconds left on the clock, Lomax made it a 57-55 game with a layup. The junior led all scorers with 18 points.
Time was down to 1.7 seconds when Dion Rodgers snared a rebound on a missed Bartlett free throw. His desperation half-court shot at the buzzer fell short.
"Our last couple of games we were pretty bad and we just kind got sick of that," Lomax said. "We just wanted to come out and have something to build on."
After scoring 49 points in the first three quarters, the Hawks only tallied eight in the final eight minutes. Bartlett (10-16, 7-8) had plenty of opportunities to add to its lead, going to the free-throw line 17 times in the final frame, but connected on only four of them.
"It was a fluke," Bartlett coach James Wolfsmith said. "We are normally a good free throwing team. We just had an off night.
"We hurried our offense in the fourth quarter. We were impatient and took the first available shot," said Wolfsmith. "But don't take away anything from Elgin, they battled."
"I think we just lost our composure," said Cam Kunzer, who led Bartlett in scoring with 16 points. "In the first half we were in the moment and then we started getting out of it."
In the first half, it was all Bartlett. The Hawks held the Maroons to single digit scoring in the first two quarters and led 31-16 at the half. Kunzer scored 12 of his points in the first 16 minutes. Teammate Ian Smith tallied seven of his 10 points in the first half.
Darien Jackson scored 11 for the Maroons.