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Lisle's 'Madhouse' sees big win

Lisle chose the right time to print "Madhouse on Short Street" T-shirts.

Rival Westmont was in Friday for boys and girls Interstate Eight Conference basketball games in both gyms. A large crowd cheered Lisle's first Special Olympics basketball team and the "Little Lionettes" who danced with the big Lionettes at halftime of the boys varsity game.

Finally, a rollicking start and classic finish, Lisle's boys needing all 32 minutes to capture a 62-58 win over the Sentinels.

"This is the biggest game I've ever played, and I love it," said Lisle point guard Nick Massura.

He had big reasons.

In the last 15 seconds Massura blocked bruising Marcus Mott-Larson's close attempt to tie the score at 60. After Lisle's Mark McGrath made a free throw and missed the second, Massura grabbed the offensive rebound, was fouled, and made a free throw with 1.3 seconds left to seal the outcome.

Massura's block was one of those that could have gone either way.

"I didn't give up on the play," said the 6-foot junior, who led Lisle with 18 points, including five 3-pointers. "And I got the block, I was lucky enough to get it and not get a foul. That was good for us."

Not so good for Westmont. Yet the 6-2 Mott-Larson, 7 of 9 from the floor for a game-high 19 points off the bench, did no whining.

"It's not to my personal preference, the ref made the call," he said. "Earlier in the game we made mistakes that allowed us to be in that position. If we would have cleaned up how we played originally then it would have been better and we wouldn't have to worry about that situation."

Sound logic. Westmont (5-10, 1-4) had the height advantage and coach Craig Etheridge's goal was to exploit it. Instead Lisle (6-10, 2-4) took a quick 19-5 lead behind 2 Massura 3s and 6-1 Charlie Jansen, who finished with 8 points, 8 rebounds.

The Madhouse had an effect, Etheridge said.

"Lisle, they were pumped up, they were excited and it helped them play better and we started slow. So it was a big hole to dig out of," he said.

Mott-Larson's 11 second-quarter points and 7 of Jack Rebellato's 13 had Westmont rally to a 34-31 halftime lead and the battle was on. Lisle's 3-of-10 free-throw shooting in the quarter, 19 of 39 for the game, helped out.

"We have a lot of young kids and there's a lot of adrenaline flowing tonight, so I think to some degree that's expected. But we didn't like to see that," said Lisle coach Mark LaScala.

Westmont led 43-42 when Lisle's Ryan Gillen closed the third quarter with a steal and layup. Gillen and Mark McGrath each added key steal-layup combos in the fourth quarter to keep the Sentinels chasing. Westmont came within 60-58 on Adam Doll's 22-foot 3-pointer with 19.6 seconds left.

"If we don't force some turnovers I think we're in trouble," LaScala said. "We forced some timely ones. Our half-court offense got a little stagnant, so I think that those points off turnovers were very big."

McGrath scored 15 points and Gillen 11 for Lisle. Westmont's Sean Alexander scored 10 points and grabbed 8 of his 9 rebounds in the fourth quarter.

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