Fenton's King best at the buzzer against Glenbard South
Diamon King was golden for Fenton on Thursday.
The 6-foot-2 junior forward made a pair of huge buzzer-beating plays to cap a tremendous individual performance and give the host Bison a thrilling 51-50 overtime victory over Glenbard South in Bensenville.
King finished with 14 points and a personal-best 21 rebounds as Fenton rallied from 14 points down to win its Upstate Eight Conference debut.
"You've got to hand it to Fenton," Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke said. "They competed all night long and all the way up to the finish. We came up short."
The visiting Raiders (3-2, 1-1) led by as many as 9 points in the fourth quarter before the Bison chipped away, pulling within 46-45 on Andre Reed's 3-pointer with 30 seconds left.
Cade Hardtke split a pair of free throws for Glenbard South with 12.7 seconds to go and the Bison were out of timeouts and apparently headed to defeat. Then King scored on a layup as he was falling down to send the game to overtime tied at 47.
Glenbard South twice took the lead in overtime, the last coming when Trevor Burnett made a steal at midcourt and went in for a layup to put his team up 50-49 with 36 seconds remaining.
The Bison (3-2, 1-0) again were out of timeouts and Ricky Lopez missed a driving layup with five seconds left. But Marcus Rule saved the ball from going out of bounds and King tracked it down.
He thought about going up with the ball but then passed to center Gerell Wilson, who scored on a layup at the buzzer. It was Wilson's first game-winner.
"It feels great," Wilson said. "(King) found me. I knew he got the rebound, he got up and gave me it. I put it right where I had to put it."
King had been a force in the first half, helping the Bison chop a 27-13 deficit to 27-23 at the break. But he was held scoreless in the second half until his buzzer-beater at the end of regulation.
That's why King looked for a better option when he got the ball as the clock ticked down in overtime.
"First of all, I was looking to see if I could go to one of my moves right away," King said. "They closed out on me and completely ignored (Wilson).
"I saw him out of the side of my and I just had to give it to him - he was wide open.
'You've got to always look for the better shot."
And you've got to play until the final whistle, which is something the Bison are getting good at.
"We fight to the end," Fenton coach Chaz Taft said. "We just never give up.
"It's been like that the whole year. It's real early, but we're just playing hard and never giving up on plays and that's what we're trying to tell these guys - you're playing to the last whistle, all the time."
Reed had 15 points and 6 steals for Fenton, while Lopez tallied 8 of his 10 points after halftime. The 6-5 Wilson finished with 6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks.
Jacob Folkerts had 17 points to pace Glenbard South, which missed 5 of 7 free throws down the stretch.