West Aurora rallies in OT
It was the ultimate clash of basketball cultures Tuesday night at the Class 4A East Aurora boys sectional.
Once-beaten Plainfield East, the top seed, was in command for the first 20 minutes of its contest with perennial state power West Aurora.
But the fourth-seeded Blackhawks made their inevitable run, sending the game into overtime before prevailing 58-53 in a not-always well-executed but unquestionably tense thriller in Aurora.
“It was a very exciting game,” West Aurora coach Gordie Kerkman said of the encounter between his decades-long power and the third-year Bengals.
In a frenzied fourth quarter featuring four ties in the final five minutes and 26 seconds, an extended sequence in which neither team led by more than two, Jontrel Walker, who paced West Aurora with a game-high 19 points, hit a clutch baseline jumper.
But the Blackhawks' 43-41 lead — only its fourth of the night — proved short-lived when the Bengals' Dee Brown drained an equally long jump shot on the ensuing possession.
“It was a matter of we just didn't want to lose,” said Walker. “We were going after every ball.”
Nowhere was the Blackhawks' collective desire demonstrated more completely than in the extra session when a 9-3 advantage on the glass paid huge dividends with second-chance points.
Juwan Starks' pair of conversions at the line — off his own missed front end of the bonus — started a trend that became an avalanche of importance in the game-deciding extra four minutes.
Time and again, the Blackhawks' unquenchable desire to milk every possession, pay for every missed Plainfield East chance, and make the most of their extra chances proved insurmountable for the Bengals.
“They killed us on the boards all night,” Plainfield East coach Branden Adkins said. “They just played harder than we did when it mattered at the end.”
West Aurora (24-5) had almost as many offensive rebounds (21 to 23) as Plainfield East (27-2), which saw its 13-game winning streak come to an end, had on the defensive glass.
The Blackhawks eventually built three 5-point leads in overtime and survived every spirited Plainfield East comeback attempt.
It could not have been a more sluggish offensive beginning for West Aurora, which shot only 25 percent (8-for-32), including only scoring twice from the field in the second quarter.
Plainfield East outscored the Blackhawks 16-1 to take a 30-18 lead with 4:23 to play in the third quarter.
“We took some terrible shots,” Kerkman said. “Shot selection was our No. 1 focus at halftime. We looked like a grade-school team out there.”
Walker and Starks' 3-pointers halved the deficit, beginning the road back as Plainfield also suffered from unnecessarily forced shots as its lead dissipated.
Starks, who finished with 15 points, hit his third 3-pointer of the game on the opening possession of the fourth quarter to lay the foundation of the Blackhawks' erasure of their 12-point deficit.
Spencer Thomas' double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds was indispensable for West Aurora, while Brown had 16 points to pace the Bengals.
West Aurora will face either second-seeded Downers Grove South or No. 3 Metea Valley Friday night for a berth in its 14th supersectional since 1973.