Ball bounces Fremd's way at South Elgin
Sometimes the rim giveth.
Sometimes the rim taketh away.
Trailing Fremd by a point with 7.5 seconds to play in overtime Saturday, host South Elgin inbounded the basketball from the sideline just inside midcourt.
The Storm executed to near perfection the pick-and-roll play coach Brett Johnson had drawn up in the preceding timeout.
Sophomore Kendis Wiley set a perimeter pick on Fremd senior guard Russell Beaupre then rolled toward the basket as Fremd forward Jack Walsh switched to cover South Elgin guard John Aaron Wafford.
Wafford fed a pass over both Vikings to the rolling Wiley. The 6-foot-4 sophomore caught the ball in stride, took a step and quickly released a shot over oncoming defenders Matt Wingen and Matt Smearman just before the buzzer sounded.
The bank shot bounced once on the rim.
Then twice.
Two seconds felt like eternity.
Then the ball rolled off the front rim. Fremd exhaled after a 37-36 nonconference win.
"I can see it in my brain rolling off the rim," Smearman said of the suspenseful shot. "We'll take it."
"I was nervous. I'm not gonna lie," Fremd guard Max Wexley said. "But it didn't go in and we pulled out the win. I'm grateful for that."
It was a tough break for Wiley, who led the Storm with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting. He raised both hands to his head in disbelief after the final buzzer. So did three teammates on the court. Ditto a couple of guys on the bench. The loss dropped the Storm to 10-14.
"(Wiley) did a great job of setting a screen for Wafford and Wafford made a great pass to him," Johnson said. "I think he makes that shot nine out of 10 times. It just so happened there were two guys there. He threw it up there and it rolled off the rim. Basketball is a game of inches."
Neither team led by more than 5 points. The Storm led 15-14 at halftime, but Fremd (13-10) - playing without injured leading scorer Jake Schoffstall, expected back next week, according to coach Bob Widlowski - held a 25-24 advantage heading to the fourth quarter.
South Elgin used an 8-0 fourth-quarter run to take a 32-29 lead. Wiley's fifth field goal with a minute left gave the Storm their first fourth-quarter lead.
Following Fremd's 16th turnover and sixth of the fourth quarter, sophomore guard Drew Cwik's free throws extended the South Elgin cushion to 32-29 with 31.9 seconds remaining.
Wexley answered in a big way. The Fremd senior drained a 3-pointer from the left wing with 20 seconds left to knot the score at 32-32.
"Max Wexler stepped up for us," Widlowski said. "He did a good job defensively too. He did a real nice job in the last two minutes of the game when we needed a senior to step up."
Fremd took a 5-point overtime lead on a pair of Wexley free throws and a Beaupre 3-pointer, assisted by Spearman. Still, the Vikings left the door open as Beaupre twice missed bonus free throws in the final 70 seconds.
"We gave them a chance," Widlowski said. "We put some pressure on our defense, but we got a couple of stops."
Eight Vikings scored, led by Wexley's 11 points. Senior Tafara Okammor (4 points) came off the bench to grab 8 rebounds.
Cwik scored 9 points for South Elgin. Sophomore Lance McVicar finished with 8 points on 2-of-14 shooting and Wafford added 7 points.