BARTLETT – Bartlett fended off a late Glenbard East rally Tuesday the old-fashioned way: by making its free throws.
Clark Lewis made three of four in the final minute, and freshman Kelton McEwen made two with 10 seconds left as Bartlett held off the Rams, 50-46, in the Upstate Eight Conference tournament game at Bartlett.
The Hawks led by 11 late in the third quarter following a run that started with two 3-pointers by McEwen. But the Rams used some aggressive defense and hit some big shots to get within 43-42.
George Betevis made Bartlett’s last field goal to make it 45-42. Conrad Luczynski rebounded a Glenbard East miss and the Rams, who had only four team fouls at the time, were forced to foul. Lewis made three of four to make it 48-42.
LaDonus Rogers scored for the Rams, and Tyrese Buffkin got a steal and made two free throws.
McEwen calmly drained two foul shots to make it a two-possession game. Glenbard East got two 3-point attempts in the closing seconds, but Betevis rebounded the second and held on as time expired.
How close was it? Bartlett made 20 of 44 field-goal attempts and six of nine free throws. Glenbard East made 19 of 44 field goals and five of nine from the line.
“It was a good, old-style Upstate Eight kind of basketball game,” said Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith. “Both teams were going at each other physically. We got some separation with a couple of 3s from Kelton, and then they came back. Conrad staked us to an early lead, but they tried really hard to keep him from easy buckets in the second half.”
Luczynski scored 12 of his 18 points in the first half and also had seven rebounds and three blocks. McEwen finished with 10, and Lewis and Betevis added 7 apiece for Bartlett (10-3), which moves on to face the Streamwood-South Elgin winner.
Rogers led all scorers with 20 points, but no one else hit double figures for Glenbard East. Joe Hamilton, Nick Janega, Jack Rivas and Terence Spencer scored six points each for the Rams (3-11). Spencer also grabbed 9 rebounds.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our guys tonight,” said Glenbard East coach Al Biancalana.
“They played as hard and as well as they possibly could tonight, so that was nice to see. It was nice to see our seniors step up. We made big plays tonight. We had great defensive stops. I don’t think we played like a 3-11 team all year long, and we just couldn’t come up with that one play that we needed to get.”