Boys basketball: Davion Thompson sparks Bolingbrook in win at Lockport

LOCKPORT – A top team is going to struggle once in a while and when it does, it’s not often that it can look to a freshman to get it out of its funk.

But that’s exactly what the Bolingbrook boys basketball team can do.

With the Raiders locked in a tight game in the first half, Davion Thompson stepped up. The freshman guard scored 12 straight points and finished with a game-high 22 points as Bolingbrook broke away from a halftime tie and went on to a 64-51 victory over host Lockport in a SouthWest Suburban Conference Blue Division clash on Friday.

It was the second win in three days for Bolingbrook (14-2, 3-0), which rallied from a halftime deficit at home on Wednesday to defeat Romeoville 68-58.

On Friday, the Raiders were tied 28-28 with Lockport.

“Give them a lot of credit,” Bolingbrook coach Rob Brost said of the Porters. “They hit some big shots and they were well prepared and ready to go.”

The Porters (4-10, 0-2) were, and senior guard Evan Dziadkowiec had all seven of his points in a 12-2 spurt that gave them a 23-18 lead midway through the second quarter. The only points for Bolingbrook in that span were from Thompson.

But with Bolingbrook trailing 25-20 with under three minutes left in the half, Thompson scored eight straight points and capped his stretch of 12 consecutive on a steal and layup with 51.1 seconds left in the half.

“I’m running out of adjectives to describe him,” Brost said of Thompson. “When we were struggling to score, he took over on offense and got us going. I’m glad he’s on our team.”

Thompson has a calmness about him that seems beyond his youth.

“It’s just basketball, you just go out and try to get the W,” Thompson said. “Our team stayed composed and I feel like we can come back. We just had to clean stuff up and our defense leads to transition.”

Logan Cooper, a senior guard who fished with six points, hit a 3-pointer with 32 seconds left in the first half as the Porters pulled even at halftime. But they could never retake the lead.

Bolingbrook opened the third quarter on a 13-0 run as junior forward JT Pettigrew (15 points, 11 rebounds) had seven points and Thompson scored four in the deciding burst. The lead extended to 17 and the Raiders led 49-34 after three.

“I’m proud of the guys to open the second half like that,” Brost said. “We’re not going to play great every game. We still did what we wanted to do and got a double-digit conference win on the road.”

Senior guard DJ Strong added 14 points and sophomore guard Trey Brost scored seven points for Bolingbrook, which led 13-11 after the first quarter.

The Porters hung in there in the fourth quarter and cut the deficit to nine points on five occasions, the last time at 58-49 with 3:41 to play in the game. But Pettigrew hit 5 of 6 free throws as the Raiders hit 6 of 8 free throws down the stretch and were 13 of 22 from the line in the game.

Senior guard Majd Awad led Lockport with 12 points, 10 of those in the second half. Junior point guard Bryce Turner added nine points.

“It’s never an effort problem, they are a joy to coach,” Lockport coach Dave Wilson said of his team. “The guys weren’t intimidated and stayed in the moment. But we just had to play nearly perfect to be able to pull it off. We said at halftime that Bolingbrook was going to make a run and we had to weather it. But we just missed too many layups and made turnovers (17 in the game).”

Wilson, in his first season as Lockport coach, was impressed by Thompson.

“He plays with a calmness and a tempo that you don’t see from a freshman,” Wilson said. “He’s composed, stays within himself and doesn’t force anything. I wish him the best, just not against Lockport.”

Did Thompson, who added five rebounds, expect to make this sort of impact as a freshman?

“I was nervous at first but then I got used to the varsity level and speed,” he said. “To go win state, that’s the goal for us.”