Lisle escapes against Westmont

Let's hear it for another rendition of "Why they play the games."

On Friday Lisle's boys basketball team brought a 14-game winning streak into Westmont, which had lost eight of its last 12 games.

Naturally, this Interstate Eight Conference rivalry game came down to the last shot before Lisle eked out a 41-40 victory.

"It's probably one of the most exciting of the year," said Lisle's Jay McGrath, who scored a game-high 13 points with 6 rebounds and 3 steals.

"We played in the (IEC Tournament) championship and we had some experience going into an atmosphere like this, which gave us an edge. It was just a lot of fun to play in," he said.

Westmont (17-10, 6-5) tied the score 37-37 with 2:51 to play on Michael Thompson's putback basket but then committed two straight turnovers.

Lisle (19-9, 9-2) went up 41-37 with 40 seconds left on baskets by Cameron Stitt and Elisha Basnight, who converted Connor Webb's alley-oop pass.

Westmont's Troy Schlicher hit a 3 from the left wing to draw within 41-40 with 30 seconds left. Lisle missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free-throw chance, but Westmont missed a step-back 3 for the tie. Basnight secured the rebound, ending the drama between the Nos. 1-2 seeds of their Class 2A Clifton Central subsectional.

"We're the No. 1 seed in the regionals so everyone's coming for us," Basnight said. "Like I said before, we went from the hunters, now we're the hunted."

Both teams were a little of both over the course of Westmont's senior night, "a game no one deserved to lose," Lisle coach Mark LaScala said.

Westmont used 3s by Schlicher, Thompson and Caden Anderson and forced 5 Lisle turnovers in a 15-1 scoring run to give the Sentinels a 24-13 halftime lead.

Lisle got right back into it with a 15-2 third quarter run headed by McGrath and Devin Tincu, who took turns with fellow 6-5 forward Jakub Kowal protecting the lane in the Lions' 1-3-1 zone defense.

"They cover a lot of ground just with their wingspan," said Westmont coach Craig Etheridge, whose Sentinels were led by Matthew O'Leary's 10 points. "We had a hard time getting the ball where we wanted."

Anderson said the game was "super fun" even in defeat.

"I think it shows the story of Westmont and Lisle," Anderson said. "No matter how cold or hot a team is or how much better a team is than the other team it's always going to be a close game, it's always going to be physical. Always going to be a good, fun, rival game."