Wheaton North loses to Riverside-Brookfield in final seconds
Even several minutes after Friday's game, senior Brayden Anthony and his Wheaton North boys basketball teammates still were in shock.
The Falcons had just lost to Riverside-Brookfield 57-56 in the fourth round of R-B's Bill VandeMerkt Tournament on senior Ryan Cicenas' 3-pointer with 13 seconds left after opening a 55-47 lead on Matthew Brend's free throws with 1:08 remaining.
"We thought we had it in the bag," said Anthony, who had a team-high 17 points with three 3-pointers. "They made plays at the end, I guess. We were winning, but we didn't make our free throws at the end, which we should have."
Wheaton North (1-2) called a timeout with 11.9 seconds. Brend drove the lane and kicked the ball out to Anthony, who drove across the lane and put a shot off the rim. The teams scrambled for the rebound as time expired.
The final minute for the Falcons and an 8-point second quarter were just enough to hinder a balanced attack of eight 3s among four players. Senior Josh Sorensen asserted himself inside in the third quarter for 6 of his 10 points with 7 rebounds. Jacob Schauer had 12 points with three 3s.
"It's a rough way to lose. We made mistakes down the stretch," Wheaton North coach Dave Brackmann "They've got some real good players that took advantage of those mistakes. If you make those kind of mistakes down the stretch against the caliber of teams we're playing, you're probably not going to win."
Cicenas had 24 points with five 3s and scored the last 10 points by the Bulldogs (1-2). He somehow was wide open in the corner to hit the game-winning 3 off Patrick Hanley's inbounds pass from under the basket.
After Cicenas' previous 3 closed the gap to 56-54, R-B immediately regained possession after a timeout by deflecting the inbounds pass off the Falcons and out of bounds.
The Falcons' previous two possessions were a missed one-and-bonus free throw and making 1 of 2 in the double bonus to finish 12 for 15 overall.
The Falcons complete the five-team, round-robin format with Rich East (2-1) Saturday.
"We're still trying to find our identity and play the way we want to play," Brackmann said. "We're a high-turnover team. We're taking poor shots. We started (this) game OK. For the most part the second half we played the way we wanted to play. We just didn't make enough plays down the stretch to make it happen. We couldn't get the stop we needed."
The Falcons trailed 28-26 at halftime but led 45-38 entering the third quarter and opened their biggest advantage at 50-38 with 5:18 to go after a Brend 3-pointer and Sorensen basket.
The rally especially was sweet for the Bulldogs after missing a shot to take the lead in the final 15 seconds Wednesday and losing to Morton 71-68.
Cicenas had varsity highs of 29 points and seven 3s in Monday's 105-95 loss to Rich East.
"He's one of the best shooters in the state and he proved that tonight," said first-year R-B coach Mike Reingruber, a longtime assistant to former coach Tom McCloskey.
"They're a tough, gritty group of kids that love playing basketball, love competing. It was good for them to be in a similar situation (to Morton) and come out on top. It helps them believe."