Boys Basketball: Lemont mounts furious rally to topple Hillcrest

CHICAGO HEIGHTS – After an eight-point loss to host Hillcrest in the regular season, Lemont boys basketball coach Rick Ruunas ruminated a bit as to what might happen if his team got another chance at the powerful Hawks in the postseason.

His Lemont team got that opportunity with a run-up to the game coming under odd circumstances Tuesday night in the semifinal round of the Class 3A Marian Catholic Sectional.

With a little about four minutes remaining in the warm-up period, one of the rims became dislodged from the basket standard, requiring almost an hour delay to the beginning of the game.

Lemont proceeded to dig a 15-0 hole for itself after a quarter of play.

But little by little, Lemont scratched and clawed its way back into the game, taking its first lead at the 2:09 mark of the fourth quarter on a Patrick Gardner basket, which helped propel them to a 40-35 victory.

“I knew the kids weren’t going to quit, it was just a matter of would we have enough time to come back,” Runaas said. “Was there going to be enough time? But we made enough plays, and we made enough shots.”

Lemont (26-7) advances to Friday’s sectional championship game, where it will face the winner of Wednesday night’s semifinal between Thornton (22-5) and Kankakee (23-8). Tipoff for the title game is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Hillcrest put the clamps down defensively from the get-go, forcing turnovers on four of Lemont’s first five possessions. Lemont struggled to even get shots up during the first quarter and those that went up often were hurried.

Compounding the problem was Hillcrest’s vigilant efforts in defending Lemont’s super sophomore Nojus Indrusaitus. He rarely was able to even touch the ball in the half-court set as an assembly line of Hillcrest defenders shadowed his every move.

His first shot came on one he created himself, forcing a turnover and racing the length of the court for a thunderous dunk as part of a Lemont rally of 10 consecutive points that turned what looked like it could be a runway into a competitive game. But it was the only points he would have in the first half and his teammates had trouble shouldering a much larger offensive load.

But still Lemont whittled the lead all the way down to 19-13 at the halftime break, and then proceeded to draw close on a Rokas Castillo 3-pointer to open the second half. But Hillcrest countered with its strong low-post game and rebuilt the lead to almost double digits late in the third quarter (29-21).

Lemont managed to score the final three points of the quarter to draw within five. Indrusaitus broke free for a pair of back-to-back baskets in a 40-second span to start the fourth quarter, and the race was on, as Lemont closed to within 29-28.

Quentin Hardy hit what appeared for a moment to be a mammoth 3-pointer for Hillcrest, only to have it quickly countered by a 3-pointer from Indrusaitus, who scored 10 of his game high 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Hillcrest’s ability was to attack the paint was virtually negated by Lemont’s smaller but more-than-willing defenders. Lemont drew a pair of offensive fouls and forced two turnovers in the paint in the game’s final 90 seconds.

Gardner’s basket gave Lemont its first lead, and Matas Castillo stretched it to 35-32 with another score seconds later. Hillcrest appeared to stave off Lemont’s flurry with a three-point play by Darrion Baker, but Indrusaitus again found his way to the basket and scored. He grabbed the rebound on Hillcrest’s next errant shot and secured the win with a pair of free throws.