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West Aurora holds on for regional championship

The third consecutive Class 4A regional championship for the West Aurora boys basketball team was seemingly in hand Friday night.

The Blackhawks' Kelvin Balfour scored off his own missed free throw to extend the cushion against Plainfield Central to 17 points midway through the fourth quarter of the Oswego final.

But the Wildcats, the No. 12 seed, responded with a postseason haymaker to remember, outscoring the fourth-seeded Blackhawks 22-6 the rest of the way.

On the other hand, the 3-pointer the Wildcats' Tavari Johnson drained at the buzzer only served as the final score of the Blackhawks' 66-65 victory - their 45th regional championship.

The Blackhawks (28-5), who defeated Bolingbrook at the corresponding sectional championship last year at Romeoville, will face the top-seeded Raiders Tuesday evening in the first semifinal of the East Aurora sectional.

Plainfield Central had its year end at 16-14.

Moshe Rogers' 3 free throws for West Aurora over a 23-second span in the last half-minute proved to be dearly needed.

"We got too comfortable," said Rogers, who finished with 9 points. "We just lost focus. You can never be comfortable, especially in this regional."

"It's nothing we can't fix," West Aurora senior post Hezzy Salter said. "We have to stay focused for the whole game."

Salter was unquestionably the central storyline for the Blackhawks as Plainfield Central could simply not check the senior in either the low block or on the offensive glass.

Salter had a team-high 15 points while securing a game-best 13 rebounds to power West Aurora, which never trailed in an ultimately tense contest that was tied three times in the opening half.

"When they missed a shot, (Salter was) tenacious down there," Plainfield Central coach Gregg Bayer said. "He's (six-foot-three) or 6-4, but he plays 6-7 or 6-8."

"It's not a lot of people who can stop Salter," said West Aurora shooting guard Marquise Walker, who also finished in double figures with 12 points. "He is probably one of the best undersized bigs I have ever played with in my life."

Shooting from beyond the arc was also instrumental in the latest West Aurora postseason triumph.

In its previous two games in the Oswego gym - the Thanksgiving championship game last fall and the regional semifinal on Tuesday - West Aurora missed all 39 of its 3-point shot attempts.

But point guard Traevon Brown ended the drought on the first West Aurora possession.

Walker and Rogers would later match the twin Brown 3-pointers as West Aurora extended its 33-27 halftime lead with an 18-8 third-quarter run to take a 51-35 lead into the fourth quarter.

"It really wasn't on our minds," Rogers said of the Blackhawks' 39 straight misfired 3-pointers at the Oswego venue entering the championship game. "We know what we are capable of. It's been an up-and-down year, 3-point-shooting-wise."

Balfour finished with 11 points; Johnson led both teams with 23 points.

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