West Chicago holds off West Aurora
Once again West Chicago junior Tai Bibbs entered a world known as the scoring zone Friday at the expense of West Aurora.
With a personal-high 34 points Bibbs helped the Wildcats regain a share of first place in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division with a 78-68 home victory.
"Basketball players, once they get hot, I guess they keep hitting," Tai Bibbs said. "That's the thing about our team. Any of us can get hot like that. It makes things a lot easier because people have to key in on Mikey (Bibbs) and Quinn (Ricci). It helps to have a versatile team."
Ricci added 17 points with three 3s and point guard Brian Dolan 12 points as the Wildcats (18-5, 6-2) then held off a late charge by the Blackhawks (7-15, 4-4), who closed to 69-64 with 1:56 left.
West Aurora junior Camron Donatlan had 24 points with two 3s, followed by Caleb Siler's 16 points and 10 from Damian Virgen.
West Chicago wanted to bounce back from Tuesday's second loss to co-leader Glenbard East (15-11, 6-2), which lost at Bartlett on Friday. The Wildcats only led 35-31 at halftime Friday but opened with a Tai Bibbs 3, soon went ahead by double digits and seemed to score whenever necessary.
"It's an experienced group," West Chicago coach Bill Recchia said. "You know teams are always going to make runs at you. They made runs, we answered and that was the end result."
In their Jan. 8 meeting, Tai Bibbs had 32 points but the Wildcats still needed overtime to win 72-66.
On Friday, Bibbs was 10-for-16 shooting and made his last 7 shots - mostly drives as well as 2 of his three 3s. He also made 11 of 14 free throws overall to lead the Wildcats' 22 for 29 game compared with the Blackhawks' 9 for 11.
"(Tai) Bibbs is a Division I talent. There's so much room for growth from him, but he's an excellent player," West Aurora coach Brian Johnson said. "He stepped up tonight and was hard to guard and was getting to the paint - effortlessly at times. We've got to do a better job of keeping guys in front of us, but I liked our fight and how we didn't give up."
The Blackhawks trailed 57-48 after three quarters and 65-52 with 4:33 left but Donatlan's 12-point fourth quarter and steals off defensive pressure fueled a comeback.
Freshman Antwan Mcghee also had 4 of his 8 points in his varsity debut. Juniors DaVion Cross, who had 13 points in the first meeting, and DaQuan Cross did not play.
"Even at the end, it looked pretty bad, but we kept making plays and kept staying in it," Ricci said. "Everyone on our team can come in and make huge plays. It really helped turn the tide of the game."
The Bibbs brothers and Ricci average in double figures. Dolan, usually not a high scorer, had 6 points in the first quarter. With the Wildcats' lead down to 5, he made two free throws with 1:17 left to finish 6 for 6 and next scored off a long baseball-style inbounds pass.
"That's a big game for him," Tai Bibbs said of Dolan. "He's like our silent guy. He does everything that doesn't show in the scorebook. If we didn't have him, there's no way we'd be in the position we're in right now."