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Hinsdale Central edges Glenbard East

This had nailbiter written all over it.

Hinsdale Central's boys basketball team came into Lombard less than 24 hours after playing its sixth overtime game this season. Host Glenbard East had played 13 one-possession games.

Saturday was the same, not over till 5-foot-8 Hinsdale Central guard Drew Shepherd corralled a defensive rebound at the buzzer of the Red Devils' 46-43 nonconference victory.

"This has been our season," said Hinsdale Central coach Nick Latorre. "We've been close I would say 16 of our 21 games. That's kind of been our 'M.O.,' I guess. We've been in a lot of these."

He called it "persevering." Hinsdale Central (11-10) overcame a 9-point third-quarter deficit and trailed 41-34 at 6:28 of the fourth.

While the Red Devils went on a 10-0 run, Glenbard East (14-10) went scoreless for six minutes, blanked until Carlos Meyers' inside hoop with 27.8 seconds left.

"We've talked about, there's points in games where you'd like to put them away. And till we figure that out, when to gain some separation with your opponent, we're going to keep playing close ones and it's a coin flip whether you win or lose, and we don't want it to be that way," said Rams coach Scott Miller.

Shorter Glenbard East mainly lived by the 3-point shot - 9 of its 14 baskets were beyond the arc. Kenny Adams hit one for its first lead, in the second quarter. Zach Walsh aced another for a 22-21 halftime lead and hit his fourth and final 3 for that 41-34 lead.

Hinsdale Central got into the act, Brad Huth and Shepherd notching 3s during the rally. With 2:33 left 6-foot-7 Peter Blust was at the foul line, the Red Devils down 41-40. Blust had missed his last four free throws.

"I really wasn't thinking that much," said Blust, who registered 12 points, 9 rebounds and 5 blocked shots. "It was just kind of building myself back up and just saying, I've got this one, and, This is going to go in, and thinking nothing else but positive thoughts."

He made both. Red Devils guard Chris Eck scored a minute later, and Shepherd followed Meyers' late Rams bucket with two free throws with 16.1 seconds left, finishing with a game-high 18 points. Glenbard East missed two 3-point attempts to tie.

Walsh led the Rams with 12 points, followed by Mike Fisher with 9, Meyers with 8. The first two fouled out giving up inches on Blust in the paint.

"We've just got to execute," said Walsh, a 6-2 football player who likes contact. "We've won a lot of these games at the wire and every single one we've executed well. And the ones that we've lost, like this, we just didn't execute at the end."

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