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Glenbard East escapes East Aurora

Glenbard East's Michael Finley doesn't care how many points he scores.

"I just go out there and play," the 6-foot-3 junior said. "I don't count (points). As long as I get the 'W' for my team, I'm fine with that."

Finley got a big "W" for his team Wednesday in Aurora.

Finley's 25 points, including two free throws with 4:11 remaining, a rebound basket by Zach Walsh and a pair of free throws each by Walsh and Jack Grigat in the final 12.5 seconds allowed the Rams to turn back East Aurora 53-50 and tie West Chicago for the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division championship.

Finley scored 6 unanswered points to break a 41-41 tie with 6:12 remaining in the fourth quarter and give Glenbard East (16-12, 7-3) its biggest lead of the game at 47-41.

"He was definitely the difference-maker," Glenbard East coach Scott Miller said. "He was able to attack and he stepped up and made his free throws when we needed them. I'm really proud of our guys. I'm happy for them, for our program and for our school."

But East Aurora (9-17, 2-7) did not make it easy for the visitors. Trailing 49-44 with less than two minutes remaining, the Tomcats turned Glenbard East over on three straight possessions and got within 49-48 with 21 seconds left.

The Rams did not panic, however, and Grigat's two free throws with five seconds remaining, his only points of the game, and an East Aurora turnover with 2.9 seconds left brought a sigh of relief to the Glenbard East faithful.

"We're all veterans," Finley said. "We got Jack (Grigat) and Zack (Walsh) and Terrence (Lakes) and me. We've all been there before. We've been up for three years and we all know what to do."

Lakes added 12 points, 4 steals and 4 rebounds for Glenbard East, which also got 8 points and 6 rebounds from Walsh.

"We had some issues down the stretch, but luckily we made our free throws which we didn't do Friday night against Aurora West," Miller said. "But we're going to focus on the positives. I'm proud of our guys for sticking with it defensively. We were much, much better defensively than we've been the last couple weeks."

Franklin Montgomery and Traevon Brown both had 9 points for East Aurora.

"Winning the conference is huge, but the game isn't over yet," Finley said. "We still have regionals. That's our big key."

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