Unique Shaw, Sycamore hang on to top Ottawa 48-42

SYCAMORE — With the Sycamore boys basketball team struggling to find the range for much of Friday’s Interstate 8 Conference game with Ottawa, Spartans' senior guard Unique Shaw found it at a key time.

With his team up four heading to the final quarter, Shaw made a pair of 3-pointers in the opening minute, then splashed home a floater in the lane to push the lead to eight.

The Pirates were able to cut their disadvantage to three with a minute to play, but Sycamore hit 4 of 6 free throws to eventually earn a 48-42 victory on senior night.

“We’ve had some tough shooting games this season, but we’ve always seemed to be able to overcome them with defense leading to offense,“ Shaw said, the hosts finishing 14 of 47 (30%) from the field and 2 of 18 from beyond the arc. ”We were able to get a few baskets in the fourth quarter off turnovers, and that was the key in the end.

“I was able to knock down a couple shots for us, and my teammates did a great job of getting me the ball in open situations.”

The win improves Sycamore – which snapped a five-game losing streak to the Pirates – to 14-5 overall and 3-1 in league play. Ottawa dropped to 7-9 and 0-4.

“Ottawa is a fantastically coached team, and they make every basket very difficult to get,” Sycamore coach Ethan Franklin said. “We had a lot of offensive set plays ready to go, and it seemed like I was calling for something different every time down the floor to get something to consistently work. While Ottawa played tough defense throughout, I thought we missed some open shots that we normally make and a bunch right at the rim.

“Credit to our guys tonight, because they played through a lot of adversity and found ways to win.”

Shaw led the Spartans with 13 points, followed by eight from Isaiah Feuerbach (10 rebounds), seven from Carter York and six each from Jake Shipley and Josiah Mitchell.

Sycamore led 10-6 after the opening quarter, 19-16 at halftime and 33-29 heading to the final eight minutes.

Shaw opened the fourth with a triple from the left wing, then on the next possession hit from deep in the left corner.

Ottawa’s Owen Sanders – who finished with 18 points and five rebounds – hit a 3 and then a layup around a floater by Shaw to make it 42-36 with just over three minutes to go. Sycamore then use a pair of free throws by York and single tosses by Shipley and Xander Lewis to keep the Pirates at arm’s length.

Evan Snook added 12 points and six rebounds for Ottawa, which shot 15 of 32 (47%) from the floor, won the rebounding battle 39-38, but committed 20 turnovers.

“I was happy with how the guys really battled tonight,“ said Ottawa coach Mark Cooper, who was without starter Eric Threadgill and lost guard Hezekiah Joachim to an injury early in the second quarter. ”We have to find ways to finish games in the fourth quarter, but we really battled for four quarters tonight. We were able to keep things in reach all game but just couldn’t find that next basket at times.

“We were a little better defensively tonight than the past couple of games, and maybe Sycamore didn’t shoot the ball as they are capable of, but I thought we played a pretty solid game on the defensive end.

“I thought Evan Snook did an outstanding job for us tonight. We asked him to handle the ball, score, defend ... a little bit of everything, especially after Hezekiah had to leave the game.”

Both teams are back in action Tuesday – Sycamore visiting Morris and Ottawa hosting Princeton.